Elio faces an enraged Tanaka as he stands on his balcony.

Tanaka’s face twists with anger. “What are you doing!” he shouts as he stomps towards Elio.

Elio thinks quickly as he steps inside as he shouts at Tanaka. “We have a warrant!”

Tanaka stops and mumbles. “A warrant? What are you talking about? First, you harass and barge into my home, and now this? You can’t do this!”

“Yeah!” Elio says playfully as he points over towards Ena. “My captain should’ve explained everything.”

Ena looks shocked and confused at Elio as she tries to follow along.

Tanaka looks at Ena with confusion and anger. “Captain?”

“Captain?” Ena repeats.

Elio takes another step inside. “Captain, did you explain how our team has been monitoring his movement for the past week. And we have evidence of the bird being here. With the other evidence we’ve gathered, we have more than enough for a warrant to get the bird and anything else if need be.” He cracks a sly smile at Ena.

“What? A warrant?” Tanaka scoffs. “You’re with law enforcement? I thought you were just some group that got hired to steal my Miss Sakura from me.”

“I can have more than one job.” Rebuts Elio.

Tanka violently points at Elio. “You’re full of it! You’re not with any law! How about I double whatever that woman paid, and you leave me and Miss Sakura alone. Your type always wants money. That’s all you want, isn’t it, you scum?”

Elio’s eyebrows rise as he ignores the insults. “Oh! So you’ll pay me one million?”

“She paid 500,000?” Tanaka shouts, baffled. “Of course, that vixen did.”

He pauses for a moment before he lets out a frustrated sigh. “Fine, give me a few days and I can get that money. Then you will tell her you couldn’t find Miss Sakura. That should be fine for you, shouldn’t it?”

Elio looks straight ahead at the wall as a blank look envelops his face. “500,000.” He mumbles.

“Do we have a deal?” Tanaka asks.

Elio looks down at the floor, then back up at the wall, and then at Ena, who is standing there with a nervous expression. He scratches his head as he lets out a sigh. “I should’ve asked for more from that old lady. I would have been set for a while.”

“Hey!” Tanaka shouts. “Do we have a deal or not?”

Elio takes a deep breath. “We don’t. Just give me the bird.”

Tanaka becomes much more animated as he unties his robe. “Scum! All of you!”

“Whoa there, old man.” Elio chuckles. “We don’t gotta do anything weird.”

Tanaka’s robe falls to the ground, revealing his single piece of clothing, an old pair of white underwear. However, Ena and Elio’s eyes are not drawn to the underwear, but to his body. His body isn’t what one would expect of someone his age. It’s fit and muscular, not just for an old man, but even a young man would be proud to have it. The only sign of his aged body is its wrapped in wrinkles and sunspots.

“Whoa, what?” Elio says, baffled. “How, why?”

Tanaka first rises as he takes a boxing stance. “I won’t let you take her! I might be a little older than you, but I was a champ in the 80s and I’ve beaten plenty of punks like you before.”

“A little older?” scoffs Elio.

Tanaka starts to step towards Elio.

Elio raises his hands. “Whoa now, let’s think about this. Here, how bout this?”

He looks at Ena and gives her a devious smile. “You and my captain can pretend that each other is your respective exes and duke it out.”

“What the hell?” Ena thinks to herself.

“What?” Tanaka says confused as he and Ena look at each other.

In the brief moment of Tanaka glancing at Ena, Elio darts off into the apartment. As he runs off, Tanaka steps toward Elio to stop him, but Ena puts her hand on his shoulder to stop him. He snaps back towards her with rage-filled eyes. Ena tries to say something, but before she can get a word out, Tanaka swings his hammer of a fist towards her.

Ena jerks her head away from the blow as if it were instinct. She takes a fighting stance. She lowers her body and raises her face with her arms in front of her in a defensive poise as Tanaka releases a barrage of blows onto Ena’s arms as she blocks them. Ena’s eyes dilate, and her heart beats against her chest as Tanaka attacks her. It’s been so long since she felt this excited. She can’t help but crack a smile as she starts to warm up while her mind quickens. After guarding against the first few blows, she begins to notice Tanaka’s flow, his footwork, and his movements. She starts dodging him easily. His strikes aren’t that fast but they have power.

It’s as if she’s back in the ring. “I got this.” Ena thinks.

Tanaka’s anger grows with each attempted punch that he unleashes towards Ena but she’s in the zone, dodging and blocking the blows with ease.

“What should I do?” Ena thinks. “Counter, straight, upper cut, maybe a throw and a lock? I don’t really want to hurt him.”

 As Ena debates what to do, Elio makes his way into Tanaka’s bedroom. He quickly scans the room for the bird and finds a giant bird cage that completely covers a wall. Elio smiles as he looks inside the cage and spots the bird sitting on a post, enjoying some bird seed.

“Aren’t you cute?” He says as he enters the cage.

Elio walks towards the bird as it enjoys its food. He stops and looks around. “I need a smaller cage.”

He calmly leaves the cage and searches the room for a smaller cage. He enters the walk-in closet, where he luckily finds a handheld carrying cage on top of a shelf.

Elio examines the cage. “This should work.”

Crash! Bang!

Elio stops in his tracks and looks towards the crashing sound coming from the living room. “Uh oh.”

He quickly goes into the cage to scoop the bird into the handheld cage. He opens the small cage and gestures for the bird to walk. The bird, seemingly understanding the gesture, chirps as it hops over to Elio, then hops onto his hand, then into the cage.

 “Oh, that’s cute. I kinda get why the two fought over you.”

The bird hops around the cage, then flaps up onto the perch. Its head looks around the cage. 

“What?” Elio questions the bird. “You want something? Food, water?”

BANG!

As he grabs the bird feeder and bird drinker, more crashing can be heard.

“Oh yeah! That’s right.” Elio smiles as he quickly places some bird food and water in the cage and rushes out into the living room.

With a cage in hand, Elio jogs out into the now messy living room. The coffee table is knocked over. Its contents spread across the floor next to Ena, who’s on the ground holding Tanaka in an armbar. Tanaka’s right arm is in Ena’s arm bar, and his left is holding on to her leg, trying to pull free from her.

Tanaka tugs at Ena’s armbar with his free arm. “Let me go!” He shouts.

“Are you going to calm down?” snaps Ena.

“Yes!” He barks out. “Just let me go!”

“Whoa.” Elio chuckles. “Nice job, captain, but I think you should keep him down till I’m done.”

Ena cocks her head towards Elio. “Fine, just hurry up.” She says between labored breaths.

Elio skips over towards the kitchen. “Don’t worry, I’m almost done.”

Ssshhh.

Ena hears the fridge opening, and then the rustling of a bag as things are tossed in it.

The fridge closes, and Elio walks up to Ena, still holding Tanaka in place. “Okay, Captain, I’m done. We can go now.”

Ena glances at Tanaka before letting him go. He lets out a quiet exhale as he rolls away from her. He uses the couch to help prop himself up.

Ena stands up and looks at Elio, holding the birdcage in one hand and a bag of what appears to be food from the fridge. “You got the bird?”

Elio looks at the bird in the cage. “Yeah, it’s kinda cute.”

Elio looks at Ena as she catches her breath. “Are you okay? Did he cause you any trouble?”

“Yeah.” Ena catches her breath. “I didn’t want to hurt him, but he kept trying to punch me, so I got him into a hold to keep him down until you came back.”

Elio pats Ena on her back. “Ay, good job.”

“This has to be illegal!” shouts Tanaka as he catches his breath.

“Illegal? Like you assaulting my captain?” Elio smirks.

“Th-that’s not-” Tanaka stutters.

Elio raises his voice. “Not what? You are attacking an officer!”

“She attacked me first! After you two broke in! This is absurd!”

“That’s a fun story. But who do you think they are gonna believe?”

Tanaka seems to deflate at this statement. “Oh, come on.”

Elio seems to be having fun with this conversation. “Let’s ignore what’s legal and not. If my captain is willing to forgive the assault. I’m willing to just take the bird and go. Does that sound fine to you, Captain?

Tanaka’s eyes widen towards Ena, waiting for her answer.

She glances at Elio. “Uh, yes, let’s just leave.”

Tanaka looks back and forth at Elio and Ena, then the bird, before he lets out a defeated sigh. “Fine, take her. I don’t want any more grief.” He says as he waddles off to grab his robe off the ground.

Elio smiles at Ena. “Fantastic.”

“Just get out of my house.” Tanaka snaps one last time as he picks up his robe.

Elio nods. “Let’s go.”

The two leave the apartment with the bird and bag in hand.

Elio scratches his head as they head towards the elevator. “That was fun. You’re not hurt, are you?”

Ena stretches her arms. “Yeah, I’m fine. It was kind of fun, but was what we were doing illegal?”

Elio lets out a slight smile as he presses the elevator button. “Oh totally, if he goes to the real police, we will be in trouble but it was fun, so it’s fine.”

“Yeah.” Ena pauses. “It was a bit fun, I’m glad I got to do this.” She says with a soft smile.

“Glad you had a good time.” Elio says as he pulls out his phone and makes a call as the elevator doors open.

As they step inside, Elio starts a conversation on his phone where Ena can only hear his side of the conversation.

“Hey, I got your bird.”

“Yeah, at my office is fine.”

“No, it was at his place.”

Elio’s face winces in pain as he pulls the phone away from his ear, as a woman’s voice shouts from it. He waits for the yelling to die down for him to resume speaking.

“I don’t know. He hid it or something.” Annoyance grows in Elio’s voice. “I don’t really care. Come get your bird.”

Elio nods to himself. “An hour from now? Yeah, that’s fine. Kay, bye.” He hangs up and sighs. “I hate talking to people.”

The elevator reaches the ground floor and opens. “You wanna come to my office? I can pay you for your help there.”

Ena shrugs. “And help me with my ability?”

 “Of course, but not today, I’m tired.” Answers Elio.

 The two step outside of the apartment building. “Do you have a car?” Ena asks as they start walking down the street.

“No, I don’t even have a license. Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering how you’ll get that bird back to your place. Might be hard getting on the train with that bird.”

Elio looks down at the bird. “It’ll be fine. Aren’t birds allowed on trains?”

“I’m not sure.” Answers Ena.

“Well, do you have a car?”

“Yeah.”

“Great, then let’s use it then.”

“Can’t, I don’t take it to work. I don’t use it often. I just use the trains.”

“The train it is!” Quips Elio. “Why do you even have a car?” 

Ena looks up at the sky. “I needed it more when I was training. Not so much now.”

“Ah, right, I see.” Elio stops and turns on his heels to face Ena. “Anyways, let’s see if we can bring this bird on the train, then we get paid, and finally let’s get some food, my treat. Sounds good?”

Ena smiles. “That sounds good.”