"I wouldn't be here asking if I had any idea," Youji said. He was using a few tricks to muddle Robin's ability to translate-- primarily speaking quickly, but also attempting to construct roundabout sentences.
"Mission impediments from you of all people would surprise any of us, but you're right on the brink of what Kritiker will tolerate right now. I should actually say, what they'll tolerate from you. If I did what you're doing-- actually, scratch that. I'm surprised Manx hasn't shot me already. Just being here talking to you makes me look like I'm in on it, and I don't even know what it is."
The idea that he would impede a mission is ludicrous, even now. The pressure of the stakes coupled with the immediate situation - Robin, standing there watching them and witness to as much of the conversation as he can pick up on when they ought to be on their way to the factory because it was a tight timeline already - fuel the anger Omi needs to pivot from baffled questions to defensive anger.
"How can you say it's barely what they'll tolerate when you don't even know what it is? What are you even doing here asking? If you think that puts you at risk then go home! I didn't ask you to come along." Because it does, in fact, put him at risk.
"Well, I'd rather not see what'll happen to you if Kritiker thinks you're impeding a mission," Youji said bluntly. "I can say it's barely what they'll tolerate because what they'll tolerate is narrow to begin with."
He shot a glance at the kid in the cape. They've got to hurry this up.
"Here's how it plays outside of your own head. In case you weren't sure. You asked for time and you used that time to come here. Either you're trying to do this alone or you're trying to make sure it doesn't get done."
Did he avoid the key words that Robin might pick up on?
"While I commend you for making new friends, this isn't really the time."
The truth of course is that neither of those two things is true. Omi spares a moment to glare at Youji in quiet annoyance as a stall while he debates what he's going to say-- and not say-- in return.
"I'm not impeding anything. I just need to check a few things. That's fair, isn't it? They let Ken-kun do that for that friend he had. And because we have so little time to, I really need to get started. Excuse me."
Omi crosses the three steps to his bike, pulls off one of the helmets dangling from its handlebars, and tosses it in Robin's direction. "We go now," he says in English.
"Is Ken's friend really the allusion you want to make here?"
Seeing as how Ken's investigation turned up exactly how wrong he was.
Youji shoved his hands into his pockets, and because that showed a little more frustration than he was willing to admit to, he immediately took them back out again.
"You might get better information if you could actually talk to each other," he said, after a pause to consider and then discard every possible wrong way this could go.
At the end of the day, he didn't want Omi to get hurt. With Ken or Aya, it was the same, but the difference was, he didn't mind hurting them a little himself to prevent something worse from coming up later. With Omi, that almost wasn't fair. Chalk it up to him being a true believer, but Youji doubted that his resilience could really handle the kind of paradigm shifts Aya and Ken could.
Aya's and Ken's minds hadn't resorted to amnesia, after all, and if that was the best coping mechanism at his disposal, well.
"Having someone who can run interference for you with Birman also can't hurt, but I'd have to know what I'm interfering with."
Omi takes that point, and it's a sharp one. He does remember how that mission turned out: Kritiker was vindicated. Surely this time will prove different, though? And even if it doesn't... If Bruce Wayne really is behind all of this, wouldn't it be better to be absolutely sure first, considering? It's strange, because he's never felt a need to independently verify Kritiker's intel before. On the other hand, when was the last time they were tasked with taking down someone who brought so much good to the world?
Anyway, it's not that he doubts Kritiker's intel, says the subconscious part of his mind that depends on blind faith to them. He just needs to corroborate it this time. Just this once.
The language barrier does make him pause. Youji isn't wrong, it is an obstacle, but he's not sure what there is to be done about it-- or what exactly Youji is proposing-- until he follows up with a second suggestion.
Is he actually offering to help on this?
Omi spends three seconds debating with himself whether to oblige-- his instincts favor caginess-- before pulling the other helmet he brought along over his head and looking again at Robin, speaking in the best English he can.
"He wants to help. Is this ok?"
Instincts aside, with only two days to get to the bottom of this, they really can't afford to say no.
Robin fixes a steely look on this associate of Omi's who oh-so-recently added kidnapping to his rap sheet. But judging by his smug comment earlier, Robin can guess which aspect of the plan he's most probably going to help with, and wants to test it.
"If I say 'that's perfect,' then--" he began in English, before Youji cut him off.
"Then I'll know you're being sarcastic, and so therefore you'll know my English is at least that conversant."
"Perfect," said Robin, and he gave Omi the universal thumbs-up. A translator was absolutely paramount, and this person, well, Omi trusts him. As far as this mission goes, Robin's only recourse is trusting Omi, and that's going to mean trusting the people Omi trusts as well.
It is not ideal, but if he flips his perspective and considers that Youji was willing to fight the Justice League over Omi, that's got to count for something.
Omi isn't sure what Youji said to Robin, but it seems to have satisfied him well enough. He nods to the thumbs up and looks to Youji, reverting to his far more comfortable Japanese as he climbs onto his bike.
"Meet us at the sold factory. We're going to investigate-- I want to exhaust all possible alibis that would exonerate him. Proving innocence is likely beyond our capacity, but if we can confirm the chain of command..." He pauses, because he does have at least enough self-awareness to know that this has to be so odd to Youji. Why is this time different for taking Kritiker at their word?
It's just so strange. The more the mission details sit with him, the more questions he has. Why aren't they taking out the current owner of the factory, too? He was the one physically producing this weapon. Wasn't he just as culpable and dangerous? How did killing Bruce Wayne put an end to a project that was already so close to completion and under more direct management from someone else? Kritiker must have their reasons, but Omi cannot for the life of him...
Youji deliberately does not react to the oddness. Omi has enough to deal with on his own here.
He does light a cigarette to stave off a headache. He does hope Omi doesn't get caught.
And what's the endgame here? If Omi proves that Bruce Wayne isn't worth targeting, will Kritiker accept that? If Omi can poke a hole in Kritiker's reporting in 48 hours with nothing but blind optimism and an even younger teenage sidekick, that really doesn't say much for the organization's operating procedures. If they were targeting personal enemies, not threats to society as a whole...
What am I thinking? Kritiker was always targeting personal enemies... it was just lucky that Reiji Takatori was also a threat to society.
He didn't get paid to think, that was the problem. When it was him and Asuka, he had to do all the thinking, because she was a hothead, and Persia's greatest selling point was the promise of no longer dealing with that. Trust in Persia, Persia is right, Persia's morality is the only thing standing between you and them.
And the Persia who said all of that was dead.
I don't get paid enough for this, he thought. I get paid for the exact opposite of this.
It wouldn't hurt to follow Omi in place of Persia. Well, it might hurt Omi, but having an adult there to mitigate the fallout -- to even expect fallout -- might be the best he could do.
In the end, he didn't want innocent people to die, either. Wasn't that the whole point of this operation?
The signals are simple enough, and while sneaking past maintains the possibility that they'll never know they were infiltrated, this approach leaves no risk of being taken by surprise later. It's the safer choice between the two.
Omi nods silently and starts to sneak off, then hesitates and looks back at Robin. Close combat is a competency but not a forte, and a word now will save misunderstanding later. He opens the flap of his jacket to show the darts he's packed, pointing to them.
"Does not kill," he explains. That wasn't always true, but trading out the lethal poison for a fast-acting sedative was among his preparations just before biking over to invite Robin along. Even without the understood need to honor Robin's moral code tonight, this was a reconnaissance mission only.
"Thanks," is the most positive, least sarcastic, and easiest-to-understand thing he can say to that, so he does, and in Omi's language.
When Omi goes one way, Robin goes the other. He steps from shadow to shadow silently, the way he was trained, and when he has the right angle, he lets fly his own knockout gas projectile.
Omi mimics Robin's movements from the other direction. Their projectiles fly nearly in sync with one another; by the time his guard registers the explosion of gas he has a dart in his arm. The guards collapse, one on top of the other.
Once they're unconscious, Omi drags his guard to a less conspicuous location in the shadows, just in case there are others who might notice a pair of bodies.
Well, that was efficient. Youji takes the cigarette out of his mouth so he can concentrate on the speedy incapacitation of the two employees.
"Kids today," he sighs, parking the car well away from the streetlight and making his way toward the two at the entrance.
Robin laughed. "Too bad WayneTech sold this place off, they have a pretty good insurance benefit!"
Doubting the joke would translate well, given Japan's universal health coverage, Youji did not bother, and instead got to the point.
He slid his radio headset on. "If someone comes through this front entrance, I'll let you know," he said, punctuated with a click as he lights a fresh cigarette.
"Is that line secure?" Robin asked, and not waiting for an answer, continued on in English, "Let's make sure this stays between us."
From his utility belt, he pulled a small electronic device and mounted it on the streetlight Youji was so keen to avoid.
"So he's jamming the radio signal and masking our communications from Kritiker," Youji told Omi as an aside. "He better not be outdoing you in preparations."
For Robin, of course, the protection was two-fold. In the event this was a set-up against him, it would also foil a potential channel of deliberate intel.
"I'm counting on it," Omi says back.
He then nods to Robin. "Good idea. There's a rear entrance as well, one guard posted outside. We need to check the office files and computer, as well as inventory and production line. If there's a call history on the phone, that would be useful, too."
Omi pauses. He's got to be careful in a different way now, with Youji involved. Youji doesn't know Robin's identity and the personal advantage-- and risk-- it presents on this particular case. He'll need to mind what he says to preserve that secret.
"Robin, can you handle the rear guard, then investigate the inventory and production? I'll start looking in the office." That will let the one with the most knowledge of Wayne's technology compare the product for himself, and it gives Robin tasks that the language barrier is less likely to hinder.
Besides, if he sees for himself that WayneTech's technology is present here, that's all the more personal incentive for him to stay involved, and they're going to need that if their research necessitates a visit to WayneTech itself next.
Robin waits for the translation, then thumps his glove computer, briefly activating the hologram screen to illustrate his point.
"Hacking," he agrees.
There's a shadow to the left, and a slight turn of the head from the assassins means he can slip away without being directly perceived to do so.
Making his way to the rear guard isn't difficult, and nor is sending him to join his fellows in dreamland.
The first appropriately-office-appearing room has both a PC and a nice landline. He starts with the computer, plugging in his own system, and--
He taps on the radio. "Definitely WayneTech..." he murmurs, opening up the code to double-check. He recognizes the bookkeeping software; he's spent enough time sneaking into it when he's bored.
It's annoying, the way they're just building on what Bruce left behind.
Unless it's a deliberate choice to make him the fall guy, and then it becomes angering.
Now, for the inventory. He calls up the file and-- yes, good--
"Nothing shipped recently, so we should be able to find what we need here."
Once the rear guard is out, Omi joins Robin in the office, Youji right behind him. With Robin at the computer, he picks the lock to the file cabinet to start rifling through hard copy documents. He pulls out a collection of folders and sets the stack on the desk. He hands half of it to Youji.
"Help me look."
A receipt. An expense report. A memo. Anything that could establish a link to guilt or innocence. There isn't time to pore over everything, but they can skim. He opens the top folder in his stack and flips through the pages, sparing only a second or two's once-over for most. Every so often, he pauses and reads more carefully, but he's yet to have any luck at the time Robin updates them.
He looks up, nodding his understanding.
"We'll check the production room next... Just a little longer in here."
Youji skims and shuffles the paperwork. Keywords include WayneTech, biochemical, weapons, biochemical weapons...
Oh, there's a name he wasn't expecting to see. Hachiko Mitsunaga.
"Looks like Kritiker's been sending other people to do my job," he said idly, expecting Omi to be too task-oriented to notice his droll lament. He read a little further down, because it couldn't hurt, and nudged Omi's shoulder.
"Listen to this," he said. "It's a print-out of an email from a mark I was supposed to start investigating. She says she found a lancinocaligan supplier... that might be what's causing the small veins in the lungs rupturing."
He tapped into Robin's line, and repeated it in English. There was shouting, snappy and teenaged, and he frowned, taking a moment to translate out the anger to Omi.
"So, maybe instead of rupturing blood vessels, Wayne was trying to fund the development of..." Youji did not speak medical English, but he gave it a shot. "Medicinal therapies for things like, I don't know, breathing issues."
And taking that research, those prototypes, those studies, and edging them just a little bit further forward...
"The only difference between a life-saving dose and a life-ending one is size, after all."
"What?" Omi asks with hushed alarm. Several things occur to him on the Bombay side of his brain in that moment:
1. Youji had been given a secret mission, one he hadn't been told about. 2. The secret mission involved investigating a mark now showing up here. 3. Supposed to start investigating meant that something had happened and the plans had changed. 4. Somehow, somewhere between that change of plan and now, Weiss had received a mission targeting Bruce Wayne. 5. Last he checked, 2 + 2 still equaled 4.
It could be an innocent explanation. Perhaps the lead they thought they had proved a dead end before it even started. But if that were true then why is she in the file folder.
He takes in the information about the prototypes, or what Youji is able to translate of it, and notes it for later, but his attention right now is laser-focused on this printed email and the new information about Kritiker's abandoned reconnaissance.
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no subject
"Mission impediments from you of all people would surprise any of us, but you're right on the brink of what Kritiker will tolerate right now. I should actually say, what they'll tolerate from you. If I did what you're doing-- actually, scratch that. I'm surprised Manx hasn't shot me already. Just being here talking to you makes me look like I'm in on it, and I don't even know what it is."
no subject
"How can you say it's barely what they'll tolerate when you don't even know what it is? What are you even doing here asking? If you think that puts you at risk then go home! I didn't ask you to come along." Because it does, in fact, put him at risk.
no subject
He shot a glance at the kid in the cape. They've got to hurry this up.
"Here's how it plays outside of your own head. In case you weren't sure. You asked for time and you used that time to come here. Either you're trying to do this alone or you're trying to make sure it doesn't get done."
Did he avoid the key words that Robin might pick up on?
"While I commend you for making new friends, this isn't really the time."
no subject
"I'm not impeding anything. I just need to check a few things. That's fair, isn't it? They let Ken-kun do that for that friend he had. And because we have so little time to, I really need to get started. Excuse me."
Omi crosses the three steps to his bike, pulls off one of the helmets dangling from its handlebars, and tosses it in Robin's direction. "We go now," he says in English.
no subject
Seeing as how Ken's investigation turned up exactly how wrong he was.
Youji shoved his hands into his pockets, and because that showed a little more frustration than he was willing to admit to, he immediately took them back out again.
"You might get better information if you could actually talk to each other," he said, after a pause to consider and then discard every possible wrong way this could go.
At the end of the day, he didn't want Omi to get hurt. With Ken or Aya, it was the same, but the difference was, he didn't mind hurting them a little himself to prevent something worse from coming up later. With Omi, that almost wasn't fair. Chalk it up to him being a true believer, but Youji doubted that his resilience could really handle the kind of paradigm shifts Aya and Ken could.
Aya's and Ken's minds hadn't resorted to amnesia, after all, and if that was the best coping mechanism at his disposal, well.
"Having someone who can run interference for you with Birman also can't hurt, but I'd have to know what I'm interfering with."
no subject
Anyway, it's not that he doubts Kritiker's intel, says the subconscious part of his mind that depends on blind faith to them. He just needs to corroborate it this time. Just this once.
The language barrier does make him pause. Youji isn't wrong, it is an obstacle, but he's not sure what there is to be done about it-- or what exactly Youji is proposing-- until he follows up with a second suggestion.
Is he actually offering to help on this?
Omi spends three seconds debating with himself whether to oblige-- his instincts favor caginess-- before pulling the other helmet he brought along over his head and looking again at Robin, speaking in the best English he can.
"He wants to help. Is this ok?"
Instincts aside, with only two days to get to the bottom of this, they really can't afford to say no.
no subject
Robin fixes a steely look on this associate of Omi's who oh-so-recently added kidnapping to his rap sheet. But judging by his smug comment earlier, Robin can guess which aspect of the plan he's most probably going to help with, and wants to test it.
"If I say 'that's perfect,' then--" he began in English, before Youji cut him off.
"Then I'll know you're being sarcastic, and so therefore you'll know my English is at least that conversant."
"Perfect," said Robin, and he gave Omi the universal thumbs-up. A translator was absolutely paramount, and this person, well, Omi trusts him. As far as this mission goes, Robin's only recourse is trusting Omi, and that's going to mean trusting the people Omi trusts as well.
It is not ideal, but if he flips his perspective and considers that Youji was willing to fight the Justice League over Omi, that's got to count for something.
no subject
"Meet us at the sold factory. We're going to investigate-- I want to exhaust all possible alibis that would exonerate him. Proving innocence is likely beyond our capacity, but if we can confirm the chain of command..." He pauses, because he does have at least enough self-awareness to know that this has to be so odd to Youji. Why is this time different for taking Kritiker at their word?
It's just so strange. The more the mission details sit with him, the more questions he has. Why aren't they taking out the current owner of the factory, too? He was the one physically producing this weapon. Wasn't he just as culpable and dangerous? How did killing Bruce Wayne put an end to a project that was already so close to completion and under more direct management from someone else? Kritiker must have their reasons, but Omi cannot for the life of him...
"I have to know the truth about this."
1/2
He does light a cigarette to stave off a headache. He does hope Omi doesn't get caught.
And what's the endgame here? If Omi proves that Bruce Wayne isn't worth targeting, will Kritiker accept that? If Omi can poke a hole in Kritiker's reporting in 48 hours with nothing but blind optimism and an even younger teenage sidekick, that really doesn't say much for the organization's operating procedures. If they were targeting personal enemies, not threats to society as a whole...
What am I thinking? Kritiker was always targeting personal enemies... it was just lucky that Reiji Takatori was also a threat to society.
He didn't get paid to think, that was the problem. When it was him and Asuka, he had to do all the thinking, because she was a hothead, and Persia's greatest selling point was the promise of no longer dealing with that. Trust in Persia, Persia is right, Persia's morality is the only thing standing between you and them.
And the Persia who said all of that was dead.
I don't get paid enough for this, he thought. I get paid for the exact opposite of this.
It wouldn't hurt to follow Omi in place of Persia. Well, it might hurt Omi, but having an adult there to mitigate the fallout -- to even expect fallout -- might be the best he could do.
In the end, he didn't want innocent people to die, either. Wasn't that the whole point of this operation?
2/2
The factory's security might still be using a WayneTech base and if that was true, Robin could probably work his way around it.
...or, it could just be... guarded.
He tapped Omi on the shoulder, and indicated the two standing rather conspicuously out front. Then he pointed to himself, and the one on the left.
To Omi, and the one on the right.
"One each?"
Re: 2/2
Omi nods silently and starts to sneak off, then hesitates and looks back at Robin. Close combat is a competency but not a forte, and a word now will save misunderstanding later. He opens the flap of his jacket to show the darts he's packed, pointing to them.
"Does not kill," he explains. That wasn't always true, but trading out the lethal poison for a fast-acting sedative was among his preparations just before biking over to invite Robin along. Even without the understood need to honor Robin's moral code tonight, this was a reconnaissance mission only.
no subject
When Omi goes one way, Robin goes the other. He steps from shadow to shadow silently, the way he was trained, and when he has the right angle, he lets fly his own knockout gas projectile.
no subject
Once they're unconscious, Omi drags his guard to a less conspicuous location in the shadows, just in case there are others who might notice a pair of bodies.
Now where was Youji?
no subject
"Kids today," he sighs, parking the car well away from the streetlight and making his way toward the two at the entrance.
Robin laughed. "Too bad WayneTech sold this place off, they have a pretty good insurance benefit!"
Doubting the joke would translate well, given Japan's universal health coverage, Youji did not bother, and instead got to the point.
He slid his radio headset on. "If someone comes through this front entrance, I'll let you know," he said, punctuated with a click as he lights a fresh cigarette.
"Is that line secure?" Robin asked, and not waiting for an answer, continued on in English, "Let's make sure this stays between us."
From his utility belt, he pulled a small electronic device and mounted it on the streetlight Youji was so keen to avoid.
"So he's jamming the radio signal and masking our communications from Kritiker," Youji told Omi as an aside. "He better not be outdoing you in preparations."
no subject
"I'm counting on it," Omi says back.
He then nods to Robin. "Good idea. There's a rear entrance as well, one guard posted outside. We need to check the office files and computer, as well as inventory and production line. If there's a call history on the phone, that would be useful, too."
Omi pauses. He's got to be careful in a different way now, with Youji involved. Youji doesn't know Robin's identity and the personal advantage-- and risk-- it presents on this particular case. He'll need to mind what he says to preserve that secret.
"Robin, can you handle the rear guard, then investigate the inventory and production? I'll start looking in the office." That will let the one with the most knowledge of Wayne's technology compare the product for himself, and it gives Robin tasks that the language barrier is less likely to hinder.
Besides, if he sees for himself that WayneTech's technology is present here, that's all the more personal incentive for him to stay involved, and they're going to need that if their research necessitates a visit to WayneTech itself next.
no subject
"Hacking," he agrees.
There's a shadow to the left, and a slight turn of the head from the assassins means he can slip away without being directly perceived to do so.
Making his way to the rear guard isn't difficult, and nor is sending him to join his fellows in dreamland.
The first appropriately-office-appearing room has both a PC and a nice landline. He starts with the computer, plugging in his own system, and--
He taps on the radio. "Definitely WayneTech..." he murmurs, opening up the code to double-check. He recognizes the bookkeeping software; he's spent enough time sneaking into it when he's bored.
It's annoying, the way they're just building on what Bruce left behind.
Unless it's a deliberate choice to make him the fall guy, and then it becomes angering.
Now, for the inventory. He calls up the file and-- yes, good--
"Nothing shipped recently, so we should be able to find what we need here."
no subject
"Help me look."
A receipt. An expense report. A memo. Anything that could establish a link to guilt or innocence. There isn't time to pore over everything, but they can skim. He opens the top folder in his stack and flips through the pages, sparing only a second or two's once-over for most. Every so often, he pauses and reads more carefully, but he's yet to have any luck at the time Robin updates them.
He looks up, nodding his understanding.
"We'll check the production room next... Just a little longer in here."
no subject
Oh, there's a name he wasn't expecting to see. Hachiko Mitsunaga.
"Looks like Kritiker's been sending other people to do my job," he said idly, expecting Omi to be too task-oriented to notice his droll lament. He read a little further down, because it couldn't hurt, and nudged Omi's shoulder.
"Listen to this," he said. "It's a print-out of an email from a mark I was supposed to start investigating. She says she found a lancinocaligan supplier... that might be what's causing the small veins in the lungs rupturing."
He tapped into Robin's line, and repeated it in English. There was shouting, snappy and teenaged, and he frowned, taking a moment to translate out the anger to Omi.
"So, maybe instead of rupturing blood vessels, Wayne was trying to fund the development of..." Youji did not speak medical English, but he gave it a shot. "Medicinal therapies for things like, I don't know, breathing issues."
And taking that research, those prototypes, those studies, and edging them just a little bit further forward...
"The only difference between a life-saving dose and a life-ending one is size, after all."
no subject
1. Youji had been given a secret mission, one he hadn't been told about.
2. The secret mission involved investigating a mark now showing up here.
3. Supposed to start investigating meant that something had happened and the plans had changed.
4. Somehow, somewhere between that change of plan and now, Weiss had received a mission targeting Bruce Wayne.
5. Last he checked, 2 + 2 still equaled 4.
It could be an innocent explanation. Perhaps the lead they thought they had proved a dead end before it even started. But if that were true then why is she in the file folder.
He takes in the information about the prototypes, or what Youji is able to translate of it, and notes it for later, but his attention right now is laser-focused on this printed email and the new information about Kritiker's abandoned reconnaissance.
"What do you know about her? Who is she?"