Sheer Improbability

Ring. Ring. Ring.

The phone keeps ringing from the third floor of one of the old buildings.

A man in a black shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows was standing by the window. There was a katana sword in his hand. He ignored the ringing phone on the table and was more interested in the wet street below.

"Malvinn, you're ignoring phone calls again?" complained Kay Liavin, who had just emerged from the bathroom. The towel was wrapped around the man's waist, and his shoulder-length red hair was still wet. "What are you watching?"

"The new residents in the building next door just beat up a girl in the alley. Now he's travelling in his new Bentley with two bodyguards. Should I finish him off?" asked Malvinn without taking his eyes off the dark, deserted alley below.

"Stay there, and don't interfere!" Kay hissed, lifting the receiver to his ear.

"The Rogue Brothers here. Can I help you?" said Kay in his flamboyant voice over the line.

"Kay Liavin, 27 years old, ex-Scard soldier level 5 and Malvinn Lundon, 29 years old, ex-Scard soldier level 0/5," said the figure on the line.

Suddenly Kay's cheerful face turned pale. No one knows Kay and Malvinn's real identities as former soldier Scard until the phone rings. Kay also needed to recognize the person's voice which sounded like a robot's. Kay believed the caller was using a voice changer.

"Who are you?" Kay's voice almost trembled.

"Are you getting interested?" said the robotic voice. "So you've been hiding in the Black District all this time. Is that fun? Run away from reality?"

There was a long pause on the phone line. Both Kay and the mysterious figure fell silent.

"What do you want?" Kay hissed at last.

"Business!" answered the man briefly.

Secretly, Kay clenched his fist and gripped the receiver too tightly.

"I will keep your identities and whereabouts secret if you are willing to accept assignments from me. Besides that, I will also pay you for your services properly if you manage to run it well!"

Kay's teeth chattered with anger.

"Say!" He said. He had no other choice.

Kay listened carefully to the caller's narrative. For a full minute, he didn't interrupt the conversation.

On the other hand, Malvinn's eyes kept looking towards the dark alley below. His back was straight as if he was wary of something.

"Malvinn, we have to hurry. There is an urgent task!" shouted Kay after hanging up the phone.

Malvinn rose from the window with his katana gripped firmly in his hand. He caught up with a dressed Kay and tucked two pistols into his trouser belt before pulling on his jacket.

"What job did you accept this time?" asked Malvinn.

Suddenly Kay's footsteps stopped before going down the stairs. He couldn't describe the strange call he had just received to Malvinn in detail. However, tonight's task's success would determine their future fate.

Kay turned to face Malvinn. Malvinn's cold face with a sword scar across his cheek made him scarier when he was serious.

"I will only explain to you once. Our client has just requested two tasks. If we successfully complete the first task, he will give us the second one. Just think of this first assignment as a trial of our worthiness!"

"How much did he pay?"

"The price is equivalent to our lives!" Kay glared at Malvinn.

"And our first task is?"

"Sabotaging a new type of drug transaction. We have to seize the package brought by the courier. Inside the package is the next clue that will lead us to the second task, the actual task!"

***

An hour later, they were already involved in a shootout in an underground parking lot of a former shopping centre.

Several car windows were broken. There were lots of bullet holes in the poles and walls of the parking lot. A pool of fresh blood gave off a fishy scent on the concrete floor. All that chaos came together in a dark, dank underground parking lot.

The only sound that broke the silence after the gunshots ended was dripping water from the gutter. Kay Liavin, wearing faded jeans—torn at the knees and thighs, stood in one corner of the parking lot. His white shirt was overlaid with a black jacket. Kay's right hand was raised to ear level with the revolver held. His chest heaved up and down with panting breaths. His long red hair fell to his shoulders in a bun.

In front of Kay was another man in an expensive black suit sitting lifeless. Blood seeped from his white shirt. His chest was perforated by hot lead. On the other hand, there are also several men with the same condition. They slumped to the cold cement floor from the final shot to the heart.

"Hah!" sighed Kay, who stood with the gun in hand.

Kay glanced over his shoulder. Malvinn Lundon stood behind him silently with a bloodstained blade. He had also just finished slashing several men in expensive suits on the other side of the parking lot.

Just a while ago, there was a transaction there.

A courier carrying a grey duffel bag was standing in the middle of the parking lot. He was surrounded by a limousine and three SUVs. The courier walked over to the slightly ajar window of the limousine. He took something out of his brown paper-wrapped backpack and handed it to the man in the limousine.

"How much do you bring?" asked the man in the limousine.

"Only enough for the sample, no less than the contents of this bag."

"I can't take it," said the man in the limousine as he blew smoke out the window and into the courier's face.

"We are not here to bargain. I'm just a courier. My job is only to deliver goods, and you have to hand over the money to me. If not, the rest of the goods will never be delivered to your warehouse."

"Show me everything you brought me!" said the man in the limousine.

The courier opened his pack wider. Before he could show the rest of the items in the backpack, a shot aimed at his left knee.

"Aaah!" screamed the courier. He fell with his left shell shattered.

As a result of the shot, the bodyguards in black suits standing near the three SUVs immediately drew their weapons.

Two motorbikes with deafening exhaust sounds were approaching them. Each motorcyclist wears a helmet that covers the entire face.

The motorcyclist was at the forefront who shot the courier's ankle. Now, he continuously fired bullets to attack the guards.

The courier was in pain trying to save his life and luggage. He dragged his injured leg until blood splattered on the parking floor.

"Rogue Brothers, assholes!" hissed the courier.

"Rogue Brothers?" muttered the man in the limousine. "Let's get out of here!" he ordered the driver. "I'm not in the mood for anything to do with those two bastards from the Nameless District."

"You guys trying to run away from me?" grinned Kay, who kept firing at the guards.

From the top of his motorbike, Malvinn slashed his sword at the necks and chests of the bodyguards he met. Kay tries to chase down the limo driver but is attacked by gunfire from behind. Kay was forced to jump from the motorbike and seek shelter behind the parked cars.

While the Rogue Brothers were busy with their opponents, a young man in a black coat and baseball cap secretly took out a dagger from his boot. He gripped the dagger and strolled in his wet shoes toward the injured courier.

"Malvinn, find the courier!" shouted Kay while spewing bullets. "Get the thing he brought! Don't let this punk get to him. If we fail tonight, we won't be able to eat tomorrow."

"Yokai!" replied Malvinn while slashing his sword at the two people blocking the road.

The courier, whose left leg was cracked, trembled with fear until sweat dripped down his body. He hid behind one of the parked cars. However, the seeping blood from his broken knee couldn't hide it any longer.

"Fuck! Why are the Rogue Brothers here?" He winced in pain as he continued to hold on to his pack.

A figure in a baseball cap with a dagger in his hand begins to follow the messenger's trail of blood. He arrived in the back of a parked Maserati. His figure is not tall, and his lean body looks towering in the darkness. The courier crawled backwards in fright with his body trembling.

On a different side of the block, Malvinn walked while dragging the point of his sword across the parking lot floor. The sound of blades scraping against the parking floor echoed in the dimness.

"Who are you?" said the courier, pointing his gun at the figure in the baseball cap.

The baseball cap figure hissed. "You better give up that stuff, or you're going to die with a hole in your neck!"

"So you're part of the Rogue Brothers?" The courier sneered and began to tighten his grip on his gun.

"I told you, you will regret what you did if you pulled the trigger!" threatened the baseball cap figure.

The echoing sound of Malvinn's blade tip getting closer and closer to them.

The courier panicked and was getting scared. He pulled the trigger and fired one shot at the baseball cap figure. At the same time, the baseball cap figure dodged to the side a few inches, and the dagger in his hand flew to the courier's neck.

Malvinn, with his sword, arrived behind a parked Maserati. He stood there in stifling silence. The toe of his shoe was soaked in blood from the neck of the courier. A dagger stuck in his neck.

Kay had just finished cleaning up the mob gangs that his boss had left behind. Kay was about to reload the gun when Malvinn shouted.

"There are rats that run away with our prey. It's 3:00 from where you are!" shouted Malvinn.

The baseball-cap figure carried the courier's backpack and ran at breakneck speed between the parked cars. He no longer has a weapon. The only self-defence is to use your feet and leave the location as quickly as possible.

Just as he rolled over to avoid Kay's shot, on a different side already stood Malvinn with a naked sword covered in blood. The baseball-caped figure was surrounded from two directions by the Rogue Brothers with their respective weapons.

"Show me who you are, little mouse!"