What Crooks Love

Someone's Missing

The heist is going as planned, until Lupin decides to stay behind. His friends struggle to understand his decision. What's happening to the master thief?

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The job had been a success. Well, at least for the most part.

The target was the house of a well-renowned French entrepreneur. To the public, he was known for his impressive collection of paintings. To the underworld, for the shady businesses he ran to be able to acquire said paintings. Lupin wasn't particularly interested in the works themselves, the guy seemed to have a thing for postmodernism, while the thief was more of a romanticist. But while their artistic value was up for debate, their price tag was not! Fujiko had managed to acquire some blueprints of the security system and Lupin was still waiting for an opportunity to utilize his hologram projecting bug drones. Hopefully, he'd come up with a decent name for them at some point. With the samurai joining them a day before the heist, the stage was set.

The security was tight as hell, as was to be expected with Zenigata in charge. The paintings had been moved to an extremely secure safe which was being monitored 24/7, meaning getting inside undetected would be nearly impossible. But with the blueprints in hand, the thieves had the upper hand. The plan was not to disable the security system, but rather take control of it. Lupin deployed the drones through the air vent and they projected images that made it appear as if the paintings had already been stolen. With the drones in place, Goemon activated the security system, forcing the inspector to charge in, only to find a seemingly empty safe. Fujiko, disguised as a cop, then claimed to have spotted the gang, leading everyone outside the room and giving Lupin and Jigen just enough time to swipe the goods. Luckily, no explosion would ruin their plans this time.

The image of cops running after would always put a smile on his face. "Look at them running, they're like headless chicken!" His laugh was interrupted by a bag thrown at his face.

Jigen was not as joyful as his partner. "Shut up and get to work, we don't have much time. Zenigata is not a tool, he'll figure out we're playing him soon enough."

"You're no fun at all ya know," whined Lupin as he and his partner went about grabbing the paintings. "We've got plenty of time until they come back, you should lighten up Jigen!"

"You should take things seriously for once, dammit! And what the hell are we even stealing, these paintings are hard to look at!" The gunman was far from accustomed to modern art and risking his life to steal something as unappealing as that was ridiculous to him. "These things had better make us a good buck."

"Turns out rich kids are buying 'em like crazy. I swear people have no taste nowad-" but before Lupin could finish, he heard the sounds of a police radio behind him.

"I have identified Lupin the Third and Daisuke Jigen! The paintings and the suspects are still in the safe! All units respond!" They'd been made. But that wasn't Zenigata's voice. No, that voice belonged to one ICPO officer Yatagarasu.

"Both of you freeze," he shouted, pointing his gun at the two men. Jigen immediately went for his Magnum, he had seen the kid use a gun better than most, but he still lacked experience. Not to mention, no man could ever hope to match his speed. But before he could shoot, his partner stopped him.

"Take the paintings and go," was all Lupin said without even looking at him.

"Huh? What about you?" Jigen did not like the sound of Lupin's new plan.

"I'm staying here, now go." There was no identifiable emotion on his face. Jigen would never admit to it, but it almost frightened him.

"What are you, fucking nuts? They'll be here any second! We gotta go, NOW!" Jigen's screams were in vain. Lupin was silent, refusing to even look back and face his friend.