Produce48!AU ➳ At Your Mercy

CHAPTER I

Author's Note: Sakura's thoughts will come in italics.

The sound of numerous footsteps and incoherent voices are now clearly reaching her ear. But she is still on her knees and is breathing heavily. Now that she stopped on her tracks, she can already hear her heartbeat. This cat-and-dog run with the goddamn assholes for almost 10 minutes now is sending her to the edge but they don’t seem like they have the plans of letting her off the hook.

“I need to work on my goddamn stamina, this weak stamina of mine won’t do me any good,” Sakura muttered under her breath before inhaling deeply, trying to recondition herself again.

“Miss, we’re trying to take it easy on you. Just hand us the disc and we’re good,” a voice not from afar said.

As if.

She didn’t put her life at risk only to let the disc end up to people who has nothing to do with what it contains.

It is valuable, that’s why.

“Wish on, asshole!” the raven-haired girl yelled. Flashing a smug smirk, she pulled a compact disc covered with a thin plastic from her jacket then turned around to face the group of silhouettes slowly approaching her.

“You want this, right?” she raised the CD for them to see it clear enough. “Well, come and take it,” with a final smirk, she dashed away from the group with all her might, as if her whole life depends on it-well, it does.. partly.

The group continued to pursue her through the narrow alleys. She went past through vendors, beggars, hookers and humans of any kind who were actually there to witness the most crucial run of her life.

This part of the city is the part that the government wants to hide. She thinks it’s a good thing, though. There is nothing more but brawling and constant battle for territories. But since the people of this area are untouched by the government, they think they can rule this world of their own.

Of course, these dumbasses don’t know that laws exist.

She was raised and made aware of those things because she knows, sooner or later, she’ll fall in the pits of trouble if she won’t be aware of the laws. Ironically, her good upbringing crumbled for she ended up being one of those people who defiles the law on a daily basis.

The irony.

Dust and smoke began to cloud her eyes which prompted her not to see clearly. All she cares about now is getting off those assholes’ endless chase—to mislead them, if she may.

But the heavens are not generous tonight; she tripped and fell pretty bad---having her knee knocked on a sharp piece of a broken glass, which impelled her to groan and scream in pain. She tried all her might to stand up again but failed, until she heard a voice from her back, “Well, well... What do we have here?” Sakura was certain it was one of the guys chasing her, so she forced herself to stand again and run away—but then again, she failed miserably.

Finally processing in her mind that this is a hopeless situation, she crawled away from the group instead. They began laughing at her pathetic state, slowly taking steps towards her. She elicited a grunt when she felt someone grabbed her hair and pulled her upwards. She used her remaining strength in struggling to get off the man’s grasp. However, all the running from earlier almost drained her dry of stamina and she can’t fight back anymore.

“I told you this could have been easy if you gave the disc to us immediately,” the man breathed right through her face, enabling her to smell its combined scent of cigarette and vodka. It’s a scent that she’s accustomed to because Jurina always smell like cigarette and vodka.

Jurina.

That bitch.

If it weren’t for her, she’s not in this situation. It was Jurina who tasked her in a dangerous feat of taking the disc from Miru’s lair.

Shiroma Miru, one of Jurina’s long-time rival gangs, successfully obtained the disc from the group of Nakanishi Chiyori. And Chiyori is probably plotting another plan to take it back.

The two are the leaders of two of the most notorious gangs around their area. Miru, is a vixen with a sharp mind. Chiyori, on the other hand, may seem like another stupid boss but is actually dangerous when she’ll signal to get things serious.

Now, Sakura had to face Miru’s wrath as she was certain she was recognized by the woman when she entered her lair in the middle of the night after two weeks of planning on how to infiltrate the den alone.

Jurina could’ve easily sent her underlings to do so. But the older woman loves to play such games with her. Among all Jurina’s subjects, she always gets the dangerous tasks. Jurina’s purpose for doing so? That, she don’t know.

Maybe she just loves seeing me suffer.

“If you think I’d give it to you that easily, well you’re wrong!” she yelled back before spitting to the man’s face which earned her a slap before he let her slump on the dirty soil.

Great, more bruises.

“Your attitude is really something. I would want you to be my toy but I’m afraid I have to kill you now. Playtime’s over, missy.” the man smirked then pulls a gun from his jacket, pointing it in her direction.

So this is how it’ll end, huh?

She closed her eyes, waiting for a bullet to pierce to her flesh. They say that when you’re at the brink of death, your life will flash before your eyes.

But she didn’t see anything.

Maybe I don’t have a life, after all. Sucks.

But she was startled by the sudden sound of brawling around her. She took a glance around to see a group of strangers fighting with the guys who were trying to kill her a while ago.

Though she’s already on the verge of collapsing, she tried her best to recognize the newcomers.

None of them seemed familiar.

But she was astounded by the strangers’ fist-fighting skills which eventually drove her killers off. One thing is certain, they’re used to this. She heard lots of gangs lurk around this area and this group might be one of them.

A masked person dashed towards her part and held her shoulders; laying a quick look in every part of her body, perhaps checking her for further injuries. Judging by her scent, she became certain that this person’s a girl.

She smells like lavender.

Her curiosity on how her savior looks like is strong but her fatigue is stronger that it’s forcing her eyes to close. She can only make up a crescent-shaped pair of eyes since the half of her face is covered.

After ensuring that she is partly fine, she carried her in her shoulders-as if carrying a sack of rice. “Speaking of a gentlewoman…” a thought of sarcasm popped in her mind. But she’s too tired to insist for a better way of carrying. She then closed her eyes and let fatigue take over her body, slowly drifting her into a sleep.