CHAPTER TWO
THE SWAP

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AS THE WOMAN BOARDED THE SHINKANSEN, PASSENGERS TALKED AMONGST EACH OTHER AS THEY PACKED AWAY OVERHEAD LUGGAGE AND MARCHED AROUND TO FIND THEIR SEATS. She looked down at her ticket; Carriage 3, Seat 2e. She glanced up, scanning the purgatory between cabin one and two that she stood in. A couple stood next to her, conversing quietly to each other in Japanese as they shoved their carry-on luggage into the baggage storage along with the other bags and suitcases and whatnot. Black Cat offered them a smile before shrugging off her coat and folding it over her arm, strategically covering the silver briefcase she held so closely to her body. If the owners of the real silver case were on this train, she would be foolish to wave around an identical decoy in plain sight.

She stepped through into the second carriage, ticket sat between her index and middle finger as she passed passengers already getting comfortable in their seats.

A much shorter male, dressed in the ticket conductor's uniform, appeared before her, asking to see her ticket. Black Cat presented the slick piece of white paper, allowing the man to look it over a couple times before he offered a small welcoming smile and stepped to the side. "Have a nice trip," he said in broken English, though his confidence shone through, and Black Cat stepped past him.

Black Cat lingered in the passing period between carriages two and three for the remaining few passengers to finish packing their luggage into the storage, and to leave the compartment to find their seats.

Once the compartment was empty, and she knew the restroom behind her was empty, Black Cat approached the baggage storage, stacked almost to the brim with various bags and suitcases. She crouched down, placing her decoy briefcase on the floor in front of her as she began to sift through the luggage for an identical case. Come on... Where was that blue train sticker?

And then she saw it.

The woman emitted a soft gasp when she spotted the silver glint in the overhead lighting, and the blue sticker she'd been keeping an eye out for. She grasped the handle and pulled it carefully out from the back, so as to not disturb the resting places of the other bags.

When she placed it on the floor in front of her, beside the decoy, her eyes widened. If she didn't know any better, she could've mixed them up. Whoever this contact of hers was, they'd seemed to have studied the real case as a cat studies the birds outside, or as a student studies the content they need to know for their exams. The silver cases were identical, from the way they shone in the calm shinkansen lighting, to the placement of the blue train sticker stuck on the handle, and to the lock combination.

Black Cat took hold of the decoy briefcase from either side, and pushed it into place where the real one had priorly been. Just for safe measures, she pushed it back a little further with her finger, so it sat more snug between the rest of the luggage, and she pulled away from the scene.

She took hold of the true case and hid it under the cover of her brown overcoat, folded over her arm, and set foot into Carriage 3; the place she needed to be.

However, as she scanned the carriage for her seat – 2e, if you needed a reminder – it dawned upon her that, if the briefcase had been stored away in the limbo between compartments two and three, that the owner of it would be in very close proximity whilst she was in her new ownership of their briefcase. And now she promised herself to take extra caution as she sauntered down the aisle, to the double-seater which was apparently home to seats 1 and 2 e.

Once she'd sat down, she carefully placed the briefcase in the adjacent seat, the window seat, and then situated her long coat on top of it, so that it sat as naturally as possible.

With a smile, Black Cat reached inside one of the pockets of her coat and pulled out the snacks she'd taken so long to pick out.

CRASH! Glass bottles rattled together, the liquid squirming inside each like a hurricane had struck. A couple crisp packets fell to the floor. Passengers gasped as they rose from their seats out of curiosity and mild panic. Black Cat flinched and her head shot around.

Beside her, where the snack trolley lady was making her way down the aisle, a shaggy tall man had bumped into her, causing quite the ruckus.

"Bloody fuckin' hell, do you mind?" Black Cat overheard the Cockney drawl of a young man. When she craned her neck around further to find the source, she saw the same two men she recognised from the station, sitting diagonally behind her in one of the larger four-seaters.

They both sat glaring at the shaggy man, who was rubbing his shin whilst muttering Japanese apologies to the trolley lady. The two bowed at each other before the man carried on his way down the train with his head hung low to hide his embarrassment, and his pace had slowed down in order to avoid another situation like that again.

Once she'd patted down her navy uniform skirt, the blonde trolley lady turned to Black Cat, plastering on her shiny commercial smile. She uttered some words in Japanese, which Black Cat didn't understand, although gesturing to the snacks on her trolley – and she was competent enough to understand what she was asking. "Oh, no, I'm okay," Black Cat smiled in return, holding up her pack of Pocky to show the lady she already had some food and wouldn't be needing any of hers. The kind lady smiled and continued down the aisle.

And so, now with that commotion finished with, Black Cat took it upon herself to open up her pack of Pocky, so she could enjoy her to-be short-lived Shinkansen journey.

According to the map tucked into the back of the seat in front of her, which she'd pulled out the inspect, the first stop would be Shinagawa station, and with the train's high speed levels, it was supposed to take roughly ten minutes to reach it. Black Cat glanced over at her coat, bundled up on top of the briefcase, and exhaled softly. She had a feeling this mission would go smoothly.