More Than a Robbery

Once Shiori gets inside her home, she takes her shoes off and steps into the living room. Her mom is in the kitchen.

"Hi sweetie, you doing okay today?"

"Yeah I'm fine." She responds casually.

"Get any chocolate this year?"

"No, but I gave some."

Hamasaki gets a shocked look.

"You gave somebody chocolate?! Who?"

She asks excitedly. Shiori rolls her eye knowing what her mother is thinking.

"It's not what you think. I didn't do it cause I like him or anything. He's just been really nice so it was as thanks."

"Hikigaya…"

She whisper with a big smile on her face.

"Mama, please don't…"

"I won't, I won't…" She pauses. "I'm thinking about inviting over the Oshiro's again. Poor Asami is single and this holiday can be hard for her."

She says with obvious ulterior motives. Shiori gets upset.

"Mama! You said you wouldn't!"

Hamasaki smiles and waves her hands back and forth defensively. In Hikigaya's house, Asami pulls out her phone as it starts ringing.

"Hello? Ah, Hamasaki! What's that? You're inviting us over for a Valentine's dinner? Why, of course we'd love to come. You don't mind that there's an extra head this time, right? Great! We'll see you in a few!"

She says blatantly loud so Hikigaya can hear before hanging up the phone. She turns to look at Hikigaya whose mouth is wide open.

"Mom! We spent New Year's with them! Now I gotta spend Valentine's too?"

"Aw, c'mon little bro. It's not that big of a deal."

A new voice speaks. His big sister comes into the living room and puts her arm on his shoulder. She's a cool looking girl a good seven years older than him. Despite being his sister, she shares little visual similarities to him.

"Besides, I want to meet this girl you've been telling me about."

She smiles at him. He just rolls his eyes.

"Well it's good to see you're on board. Now go on you two. Get ready cause we're heading over soon." She says as they listen and head off into their rooms.

Later that night, after Takanou got home and Hamasaki finished cooking, the Oshiros come over. Hamasaki and Asami hug each other as usual then Asami hugs Takanou. 

"Hikigaya is back!"

Riku says excitedly. He runs from the hallway with his arms out and then dives, head-butting Hikigaya in the tummy. Hikigaya lets out an "Oof!" then grabs hold of Riku in his arms.

"You little punk! You're gonna grow up to be worse than your sister."

Riku sticks his tongue out which Hikigaya responds by doing the same. After he puts Riku down he looks up to meet eyes with Shiori. He blushes a bit, noticing her hair is done differently and she's dressed a bit fancier than usual. Shiori notices him staring and blushes a bit before getting irritated.

"What are you looking at? You pervert."

Hikigaya, still blushing a bit, grits his teeth.

"Yeah right. I was just spacing out, that's all!"

"Sure you were. I only dressed up cause mama told me to, don't look into it."

She says with a "Hmph!" and looks away from him, stepping towards the table. Hikigaya exhales as Ace leans over to him.

"Wow, I like her already."

"Please, shut up."

She giggles as they take a seat too.

Asami sits next to Hamasaki as usual. Riku is next to Takanou. Ace next to Riku. Shiori next to Asami and then Hikigaya between Ace and Shiori. Asami then speaks up with a smile.

"Everyone, this is my daughter."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you! Call me Ace."

She smiles at them. Shiori happens to turn and look at her, noticing a scar under her left eye. She stares at it for a moment.

"Your mom has told us lots about you."

"All good things, I hope."

They laugh for a bit. Riku, Hikigaya and Shiori are less involved in their conversation as they are each 13 years old or younger and the others are 20 and above. As they talk about Ace for a bit, Shiori gets an opportunity to pitch in.

"How did you get that scar?" She asks directly, still staring.

"Shiori! Don't be rude!" Hamasaki scolds.

"No, no. It's okay. I don't mind. I got hit in the face by a flying baseball bat not too long ago. Pretty crazy, huh?"

She laughs about it. Shiori doesn't react much. The others notice.

"Did you know that one time when she was little, she struck out a whole team in baseball? All the players were struck out by her at least once that game!" Asami says proudly.

"Really? That's pretty impressive!" Takanou says while looking at Ace excitedly.

"Aw, well I can't play that good anymore. I mostly play for fun these days. My college has a killer baseball field."

They continue talking about college and other things as Hikigaya leans over to Shiori.

"Hey, you okay?" He asks, noticing her demeanor.

"Yeah, I was just curious."

She responds before looking at her plate in front of her. Hikigaya looks at her then focuses on her eyepatch a bit. He realizes it's her left eye too.

'Maybe she was trying to relate to her injury?' He thinks.

While they talk, Riku turns and looks at Ace. She notices and looks down and smiles at him. His eyes light up and he smiles back. He then does a finger gun at her so she does two back at him while sticking her tongue out. Riku opens his mouth wide with a smile.

They play around a bit more until eventually everyone finishes eating dinner. Once they all finished, Takanou, Asami and Hamasaki go to the kitchen to start cleaning up. It is roughly 8 p.m. About Riku's bedtime. He is sitting on the floor watching TV when Shiori comes in from the kitchen. 

"Come on Riku. It's time for bed."

"I don't wanna."

"Please don't do this now. Just go to bed."

She says with a tired sigh. She comes over to him and turns off the TV.

"Nooo! Turn it back on! I'm not even tired!"

"Yes you are. You're just a child, you need your sleep now let's go."

She grabs him around the belly but he holds onto the carpet, yelling for her to let him go. Hamasaki looks over and is about to get involved when Ace leans forward from the couch and places a hand on Shiori's back.

"Let me try."

Shiori looks at her, surprised then steps back. Ace crouches down next to Riku who is surprised.

"If you don't get to bed, I won't be able to come back anymore. You wanna break my heart like that?"

A single tear rolls down her face as she closes her eyes and looks away. Riku looks concerned.

"N-No! Don't cry! I'll go to bed so that way you can come back all the time, okay?"

Ace looks back at him with a smile before standing and scooping him up under her arm.

"Alrighty then. Let's get you to bed big man. Which one's his room?"

Shiori directs her to his room and she puts him to bed. Shiori looks dumbfounded that it worked so well. Hikigaya doesn't bother to pay attention as Shiori sits down next to him on the couch.

"She used to do that to me all the time. Thinking back on it now, it made no sense for her to never come back since she was my sister who lived with me."

Hikigaya says. Shiori just turns her head and looks at him unamused. Hamasaki is very impressed and Asami nods to her, pridefully.

As the night progresses, Shiori and Hikigaya fall asleep on the couch with full tummies while the parents drink and converse at the bar connected to the kitchen.

"So Ace used to be quite the player huh?" Takanou asks.

"Yeah, she was so passionate about the sport growing up. But as kids do, she just lost interest in making it a career. I'm glad she's found her foothold in something though." Asami responds before taking a drink.

"It seems like it can be pretty dangerous though, the sport. How long ago did she get that scar?" Hamasaki asks, looking in Ace's direction with a concerned look.

"I'm not entirely sure when it happened, actually. It happened after she left for college but before she started writing to Hiki."

"I see. I'm glad she didn't lose her eye…"

Hamasaki says, pressing her hand to her chest in relief. Asami perks up at her words.

"Oh that reminds me. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to Shiori's..?"

She asks softly, trying to be respectful about it.

"Oh, that. She doesn't like to talk about it much to anyone, including us. One day when she was really little, just in her 3rd year of elementary school, this group of 5th years beat her so bad…" Hamasaki says, still hurt thinking about that day.

"Oh my… That's horrible. I'm sorry she had to go through that."

"Yeah, it was really rough the first couple years. But after a while she got used to it. We still don't know why though…"

Takanou says as they look over to her sleeping on the couch. They turn back as Hamasaki continues his thought.

"The truth is…"

She whispers something to Asami that makes her eyes widen a bit. She looks at her stunned for a moment as Hamasaki nods. Asami then smiles softly.

"That crazy girl…"

Another day, a man comes out of a house happily with a bottle in hand. He waves goodbye to some other people still in the house. It is pretty late and he is obviously drunk. He comes to his car parked on the street and pulls out his keys. He struggles with them for a moment before going "Ah ha!" and looking at the car key. Before he is able to unlock the door he hears a loud thud fall next to him. He looks over and squints. Despite his impaired vision, he sees a large person stand up beside him. It's Watchdog.

"Hey, what're you doin' here?" The man slurs.

"I'm sorry sir, I can't help but notice you plan on driving home while very drunk." Watchdog says plainly.

"I'm not drunk, you jerk! I'm just a little silly but it's okay cause I live just down the way there."

He points down the road while wobbling then turns back to look at Watchdog.

"Besides, don' you have bigger things to worry 'bout than lil ol' me?" He slurs again.

"I try to protect people the best I can. That doesn't always mean fighting the big criminals. Sometimes it's helping out people like you."

The drunk man stares at him for a moment with a slightly surprised look while he wobbles.

"Oh. I see. Yeah that makes sense I s'pose. Okay, you got me this time. I'm just gonna…"

He wobbles back a step before passing out and falling over. Watchdog grabs his arm before he hits his head on the sidewalk though. He puts the man on his shoulder and walks back to the house. He knocks on the door and waits for an answer. A young man answers the door, there seems to be a get together inside, not quite a party but people are obviously drinking and having a good time.

"Hey- Watchdog! Oh man, what are you doing here?"

He asks, excited that Watchdog is here.

"I caught this guy trying to drive home. He passed out before that could happen though."

He carefully puts the guy into the other man's arms.

"Oh I'm so sorry about that. I knew we should've kept him here. I'll make sure to keep an eye on him. Thank you so much, you're the best!"

Watchdog nods as he takes a couple steps away from the door then jumps high into the sky then from building to building. As he is jumping, someone comes flying next to him with her large black wings.

"Well well, look who it is." Fullsky says playfully.

"Come around here often?"

He asks back, playing along. She giggles as she swoops from behind and grabs him. They land on the roof of a large building. Once they land, Watchdog adjusts himself.

"You know, Valentine's Day wasn't too long ago. Why haven't you taken me on a date yet?" She teases.

"I don't know. Been busy I guess."

"Aw too busy for me?"

She wraps her arms around his neck and slides her leg up his. He grabs onto the bend of her knee as their faces are only centimeters apart. 

"How do you plan on making it up to me?"

"I could think of a few ways…"

He says as she places a kiss on his mask. Suddenly alarms go off. They stop playing and rush to the side of the building to see the bank down below with a broken window and a small group going inside.

"A bank robbery just for me?" She asks excitedly, looking at Watchdog.

"Only the best for you, my love."

He says sarcastically as they jump down. Two people stay behind and begin breaking into the atms while the others head to the back to attempt the vault. Fullsky and Watchdog walk over the broken glass. Fullsky leans against the pole and Watchdog steps closer a bit.

"Didn't anyone teach you stealing is wrong?" He asks rhetorically while cracking his knuckles.

"Unless you're stealing from the greedy rich." Fullsky adds.

"Ah, well yeah there is that."

The thieves turn and look at them for a moment then back at each other then back at them. They quickly pull out their guns and start firing. Watchdog dodges left as Fullsky goes right. She swings out her wing and smacks one thief into the atm machine, knocking them unconscious. She looks over to see Watchdog behind a stone wall from the building.

He picks up a fist sized rock from the ground and aims for the bottom of the roof panel on top of the building. He pitches it, ricocheting off the roof and into the ground only for it to bounce up again and hit the other thief in the head. The thief stumbles back from the impact as Watchdog dashes out from behind the wall and punches the man into the side of the building by stretching his arm out. The thief collapses as Watchdog retracts his arm, looking at Fullsky.

"Pretty cool right?"

She smiles and shakes her head as a thief from the back jumps at Watchdog with a knife in hand. Before they could strike however, Fullsky shoots ice shards from her hand and nails the thief to the wall. They struggle to get free but can't. Watchdog looks at her surprised.

"Where did that come from?"

"It's a new trick I learned. You like?"

He smiles at her before his eyes widen. He quickly turns to face the bank only to be hit by the large vault door and smashed into the street. Fullsky darts her head toward the hole it came out of. A large man comes walking out. Roughly a little less than three meters tall. There are stones all around his hands and up his arms a bit. Two other normal sized people follow behind him. 

"Well aren't you a big one." She says with a sweat.

"Fullsky." The man speaks in a solid, heavy voice. Fullsky looks surprised.

"You know me?"

"Yes. Commander told me you and your lapdog might show up. He told me to eliminate you should you get in our way."

"I'm honored to be so infamous among you criminals."

"Soon you'll be nothing more than a tale lost to the wind!"

He swings his large arm down at her so she jumps back out into the street and flies up with her wings. Keeper steps out as well and looks up at her. He then opens his left palm and lifts his hand up. The road and other stones from around his hand begin to lift. She gets a surprised look on her face. 

"What's the Syndicate want with money anyway? Running low on cash?"

"Our intentions are beyond you."

He says with a grunt, pointing his palm towards her then clenching his fist. The stones and debris he was lifting crush into large balls and begin firing at her. She dodges around as more and more fly. She realizes the building behind her is getting pelted as well.

"No!"

She turns and crosses her arms before spreading them out causing her wings to grow even larger. As the stones shoot towards her, her wings catch them all but it cause her to fall to the ground, hard. Keeper smirks before he quickly looks up to see the vault door flung high into the sky. Keeper quickly lifts his hands up to catch the door before it smashes him through the ground. Watchdog stands over it with a bit of blood coming from his head.

"Damn, this thing is heavy."

The other thieves watch him then open fire. He quickly dodges one way and stomps the head of one into the floor before jumping back over and punching the face of the other. All the small thieves are now dealt with. Watchdog exhales as the vault door gets lifted up. He quickly turns to see Keeper flip it over. He is only a little scratched. Watchdog sighs.

"This is gonna be a real fight, isn't it?"

Keeper then swings both of his arms down towards Watchdog . He jumps back, dodging, only for an arm of stone coming from the ground to grab his ankle and smash him into the floor. 

"I do not understand Commander's concern with you two. Had he sent me the first time, both of you would be dead by now." He says with a low, intimidating tone.