What Crooks Love

Between Love And Hate

Zenigata comes to the rescue!

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Lupin knew all too well what the inside of a jail cell looked like. After all, he'd been getting in and out of them for years. Hell, he'd even spent a full year of his life inside one. Being the patient man that he was, Lupin had no problem staying locked up for a while until he came up with a plan to escape, or until his friends came to his rescue.

But at the time, his mind was not on escaping his bars. For starters, if he did get out of jail he'd have to go back to the hideout and put up with the inevitable barrage of questions from his friends. Questions that he knew would stay unanswered. But even if his intention was to escape, his mind was too preoccupied to even consider coming up with a breakout plan.

The kid was right. About everything. Did he really care about the fate of those caught in the crossfire, or was he just looking for a way to alleviate his guilt? Tomoe had manipulated the lives of all these women, and she was a monster for it. But in what sense was he any better? The witch might not have been his biological mother, but perhaps he shared a lot more in common with her than he thought. How many people's lives had he destroyed just to achieve his selfish goals?

It had been a few hours since Lupin had been apprehended, with the local police keeping him in the nearest station until a transport vehicle arrived to take him away. But said vehicle was in no rush to arrive. 'Incompetent bastards! Don't they realize that he can break out of this pathetic excuse of a cell in no time?' Zenigata knew these bars would not hold the thief for long. So he opted to stand guard in the hallway all night. After all, if anyone could ever hope to catch an escaping Lupin, it was him.

Yet the thief was surprisingly quiet in his cell. No taunts, no pacing around, no attempt to break out. In Zenigata's mind, it was clear that something was off. If Jigen and Goemon were to break him out, they would have made a move by that point. So what was that damned shithead waiting for? Soon enough the inspector was standing outside of Lupin's cell.

"Don't you take me for a fool! I know you're planning something Lupin. But whatever it is, it won't work! Your ass is not getting away this time!" Zenigata thought toying with Lupin might be a good way to get some reaction out of him. Force him to say something, anything! The silence was so... unnerving.

Luckily for him, Lupin met his eyes for the first time that night and stood up to face him. Good, at least he was responsive.

"That kid you've been working with lately, Yatagarasu. He's pretty good." His voice sounded off, devoid of its pride and sneer. And his tone was far from his usual smug one, sounding almost wounded.

The inspector had been caught off guard. 'The hell is he talking about? What does Yata have to do with anything?' Regardless, Zenigata decided to play along, for now.

"Of course he is! He's Interpol after all! Ha, I bet you're furious that a rookie caught you! But make no mistake Lupin, this rookie was trained by yours truly! You shouldn't have written him off as some..."

"Why do you take him along when you're chasing me?" Lupin sounded almost... mad! To say Zenigata was confused would be an understatement.

"He's been assigned as my partner. And the kid is capable. What, did you think, I'd ask for your permission first?" The inspector truly had no idea where Lupin was going with this.

Lupin's blood was beginning to boil and he clenched his fists. "How stupid can you be? Do you honestly think he'll survive long chasing after me? You drag him around like he's some puppy on a leash! And you even had that Arianna girl tagging along! What the hell do you think you're doing? You trying to build a gang of your own? Don't you realize you're setting them up to die? You might have a death wish but that doesn't mean they do!"