JE/NewS+HSJ- "Making Number Six" (1/2)
Title: Making Number Six
Universe: JE ( Government AU)
Theme/Topic: NewS as senpai their kouhai look up to.
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: HSJ, NEWS, Tackey, Tsubasa
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC, stupidity.
Word Count: 10,756
Summary: Six separate stories come together in the pursuit of one happy ending. Ten rookies each learn something very important.
Dedication: Written for seca’s (very, very late) b-day request! Sorry I don’t know HSJ that well, but mousapelli helped give me some cliff’s notes and some betaing, so hopefully what I wrote is an okay facsimile of the group you know. Also thanks to crystallekil for taking a look at this for me as well.
A/N: The title of this pretty much references “We are Legends,” but not so much that reading it is absolutely necessary (though recommended?). And I think I’ve learned my lesson. NO MORE HSJ. NEVER AGAIN.
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!
1.
“We’re going to instate them next month. Officially,” Tackey says at random one morning, as he and Yamapi sit down to a quick breakfast in the commissary together before hours. Tsubasa is still at the counter, very deliberately deciding between the chocolate and the strawberry milk.
Yamapi blinks when he hears Tackey’s announcement and puts down his vegetable juice; he forgets to screw the cap back on. “Them?” he asks, still half-asleep but polite anyway.
“The HSJUMP,” Tackey clarifies. He sips his coffee and arches two perfect brows across the table at his kouhai. “HSJ for short.”
Yamapi blinks some more and starts to wake up in earnest when he realizes what Tackey means by that. “Officially? Isn’t it too early?” He sounds concerned.
Tackey shrugs. “Crime doesn’t wait,” he explains simply. “And we can’t afford to either. Everyone’s being stretched too thin. Tsubasa worked on a new budget; there’s finally room for another team to graduate from the junior ranks.”
Despite the bags under his eyes agreeing with Takizawa’s whole statement about being stretched too thin, Yamapi still looks troubled at the news. “They aren’t…”
Tackey laughs a little because he knows exactly where Yamapi’s concerns lie. They’re the same as his. “Ready? Experienced? Capable?”
Yamapi frowns. “Prepared,” he finishes quietly, and remembers having had the exact same feeling about himself some years ago, under the very same circumstances. He’d been too young back then, too scared and too uncertain to do this job without someone there to guide him through it. He’s pretty sure that he’s seen that very same sentiment written all over those kids’ faces too, that same feeling of being lost and not knowing how to react and only having a heap of expectations thrust open them. It’s too early and maybe they’re even less equipped to do this job than NEWS had been, all those years ago. “They aren’t prepared for this yet,” he repeats to Tackey firmly, “not just like that. Not as they are.”
Tackey’s lips quirk when he sees something like resolve in Yamapi’s eyes, the familiar circumstances bringing the young director fully to life despite the early hour. “I know,” he tells his subordinate wryly, looking strangely expectant. “But they’re good; almost as good as your team was five years ago. And I think that with the right help…they have the potential to be the ones who take us to number six.” He smiles mysteriously.
Yamapi sees the look on Tackey’s face and thinks that maybe he’s being played somehow, knows it even. But regardless, it doesn’t stop him from inevitably asking Tackey “Can we help?” anyway.
Something about the situation demands it; something in his chest knows it’s the right thing to do.
Tackey smiles at Yamapi knowingly when he hears the magic words. “Well,” he starts, looking pleased and proud all at once, “there is something you can do…”
~~~~~
2.
Ryo looks down at the two brats sitting on either side of him and sighs; Agent Yamada smiles back at him in that fake, bright way that used to make Ryo hate everything about Tokyo while Agent Inoo looks down quickly, at his gun or maybe his feet-anywhere that isn’t at Ryo’s eyes.
“Alright,” the older sniper starts gruffly after a moment, “Pi said we were babysitting today, but I didn’t actually think there would be real babies involved until I saw you two suit up this morning. Are you locked?”
“Yes!” Yamada says, and holds up his gun obediently.
“Yes,” Inoo echoes, and still looks kind of nervous. Like he’s waiting for someone to reach out and bite him any second now. Ryo is almost tempted to do it, but manages to refrain.
He sighs instead. “I know they said you’d be backing us up today,” Ryo begins in measured tones, “but I want you to know that they lied.”
The two younger agents look confused; Ryo smiles at that, but not in a particularly pleasant way. “Even though you’ve got your shit out and ready to go and even though you’re sitting in the B and C positions, I want you both to know that you’re strictly here to watch me be awesome. I’ve already got all the backup I need.”
Yamada blinks and looks around the empty rooftop. Then raises his hand obediently, like the perfect little student he’s always been. “Senpai,” he begins, and earns himself a slightly raised eyebrow, “I mean, Sir,” he amends quickly, “there’s no one else here to back you up but us.”
Inoo nods automatically.
“Just take your damned positions,” Ryo snorts and locks his weapon, peering through the scope and smoothly ignoring them both. “Amateurs.”
Beside him, Yamada looks excited and takes the B while Inoo immediately moves into the C position.
Ryo looks at them both and wonders why they didn’t even janken for the good spot.
He shrugs mentally; it’s none of his business. All NEWS is doing is overseeing the junior agents on missions over the next few weeks, not taking deep looks into their inner group workings.
“We’re like training wheels,” is how he’d put it earlier, after Yamapi had given them the briefing.
“We’re the senpai,” Koyama had corrected responsibly, and looked excited at the prospect of helping cultivate a whole new generation of agents to help protect the world.
Ryo currently thinks that if that’s the case the world is a little doomed; he sees it out of the corner of his eye, that pride Yamada has, that ambitious spark that says he wants to take care of it all, that he wants to be the hero, the center of attention.
And fifty yards away, Inoo fiddles silently with the scope, shoulders hunched tight over his weapon and looking like a roof fixture instead of a marksman.
Ryo endures it all for about three seconds, before he turns to Yamada. “You,” he says, “take the C.”
Yamada blinks. “Eh? But…”
“I said take the goddamed C,” Ryo tells him simply, “If I have to repeat myself again I won’t. I’ll just push you off of the roof.”
He turns to Inoo after that, pointing because he can’t remember the kid’s name. “Nervous guy,” he barks, and figures that’s close enough, “You take the B.”
Inoo looks like a deer caught in headlights. “W-what?”
Yamada is similarly off-put. “Sir, did I do something wrong?”
“I’d rather have the nervous idiot sitting next to me than the glory hound,” Ryo shrugs.
Yamada looks wounded. “Sir,” he starts, “I was the number one shooter in my class. Top of the academy. I can handle this.”
“I’m the number one shooter in the country,” Ryo says, slowly, “And that makes you-at best-number two. So, Number Two, shut the hell up.”
“Sir…”
Ryo grins. “Actually, call me Number One. I like that better.”
Yamada looks vaguely disbelieving. “Number…One?”
Ryo smiles. “Get in the C, Number Two.”
Yamada and Inoo quickly do as they’re told before Ryo makes good on his throwing-off-the-roof threat.
“Alright,” Ryo starts, eyeing Inoo once he settles. “Stop hunching your shoulders.”
He does.
“Relax your arm a little.”
He does that too.
“Sir…” Inoo starts after a moment, under his breath. “Yamada’s better than I am.”
“I’m better than both of you,” Ryo replies. “Now keep your eye on the target.”
Neither agent can do anything but obey.
~~~~~
They keep their eyes on their targets in the building across the street for an hour and a half after that, not moving or speaking. The two younger agents get progressively more and more nervous as the situation plays out, as the robbers make their hostage demands and the helicopters fly overhead in continuous loops. They glance anxiously down at the press vans and crowds of onlookers who are being pushed back by police backup on the street. Inoo and Yamada are young and get antsy quickly; Ryo can see them thrumming with nervous excitement, their fingers brushing the triggers of their rifles automatically whenever a dark figure passes by the window. More notably, he can see how they don’t look at each other once, don’t say a word.
Eventually, Ryo pulls out his DS Lite and turns on Monster Hunter.
The younger agents are both-needless to say-a little bit bewildered.
Another figure pauses in front of the window sometime around the end of hour two, as they’re approaching hour three. “I’ve got one in my sights,” Inoo reports dutifully.
He is ignored by Ryo, and the figure passes through again.
“Out of range,” Inoo amends.
“In my sight now,” Yamada replies, and seems even more impatient than his teammate. “I’ve got an open shot. Should I take it?”
“Not yet,” Ryo tells them, and doesn’t even glance up from his game.
Yamada looks disbelieving. “Sir. an opportunity this good won’t present itself again. I’ve got a clear shot. I think this is the best course of…”
“Despite what you think, it’s not your decision,” Ryo snorts, and flips his game closed.
“But…”
Inside the building, the lights promptly go off.
A beat.
“Well now we can’t see,” Yamada sighs, looking very close to sulking. Ryo almost considers it cute, but thinks better of it. “Our chance is gone.”
Ryo ignores him by tapping his com-link to a different channel. “Well?” he asks.
A buzz of static and then a voice responds, “Ryo-tan, we finally found where they locked up the hostages and everyone inside is prepared! You’re clear to go, ne.”
Ryo smiles. “Great.”
Then he turns to the younger two. “Alright, now we can shoot them.”
“We can’t see,” Yamada reminds him.
“Oh that.” Ryo taps his ear again. “Gimme a light, Tego-nyan.”
“Hai!” Tegoshi sing-songs, sounding only too glad.
When he speaks again, it’s quite serious. “We’ve got one 180cm bruiser twelve yards from the file cabinet,” he informs Ryo. “Three yards in front of the desk.”
Yamada blinks. “The file cabinet?”
Inoo looks just as lost. “Desk?”
Ryo sighs. “You two are hopeless,” he mutters, and starts to adjust his gun slowly, clearly only for their benefit. He moves the nozzle about five centimeters to the right without having to look through the scope. “Fifteen yards from the file cabinet.” Then he changes the angle, pushes the nose down a bit. “Three yards in front of the desk. What the hell were you two watching for the last three hours if you can’t even remember something as simple as the layout of the room?”
Inoo looks sheepish while Yamada just stares.
Ryo very nearly rolls his eyes. “Next,” he says.
“Second robber five yards from the front door, about 165cm but crouched.”
Ryo adjusts his gun again, quickly, almost thoughtlessly. “Got it.”
“And the last,” Tegoshi tells him, “is smack dab in the middle of the third window and the fourth window from the left; leaning against the bank counter; roughly 177cm tall, weight shifted backwards slightly. You’ll have to go through the wall.”
Ryo’s nozzle moves one last time.
“Got it.”
Needless to say, Inoo and Yamada are very, very confused. “What is going on?” Yamada asks. “You can’t possibly be planning to…”
Ryo doesn’t say anything, returning his gun to the first position he’d taken and squeezing the trigger once.
He re-aims his gun and fires again less than three seconds later.
And then readjusts to the last position and shoots a third time.
“Hit, hit and a wound to the right arm. The last one dove to cover after the first shot, Ryo-tan,” Tegoshi responds an instant later.
Ryo snorts. “Damn,” he says. “Okay next.”
“He’s crawling around a foot below the countertop, two feet back.”
Ryo smiles, resetting his sights in less than a second and firing again.
A breath.
Then, “Incapacitating hit, Ryo-tan!” Tegoshi chirps sweetly. “Sasuga, ne.”
“Yeah, well I’m amazing,” Ryo tells him, voice strangely warm when he does. “Over and out.”
But Yamada and Inoo miss that odd gentleness entirely because they’re too busy staring at Ryo. Blind shooting isn’t something that happens a lot in the agency simply because it can’t; the two younger agents never imagined getting to witness it first hand. Three times.
“Amazing,” Yamada breathes, and looks up at Ryo with bright eyes, with admiration that he’d never felt as the academy’s most recent shooting genius. Maybe because back there, no one had been better than him.
Inoo is slightly more reserved in his admiration, a little more wary but no less impressed.
“You can blind shoot,” Yamada marvels out loud. “That’s… oh wow.”
Ryo just sits back and begins packing up his equipment, looking unfazed as the agents on the ground start rush the building downstairs. “Blind shooting?” he snorts. “What part of that was blind?”
“You shot three targets down in pitch blackness!” Yamada enthuses after him, because he needs to. “How did you do that so quickly? So accurately? How did you remember exactly where to set your sights after you were given the coordinates?”
“It was amazing,” Inoo adds, when Ryo stands and starts to head for the exit. “We’ve…we’ve never seen something like that before. Ever.”
“Jesus Christ, weren’t either of you paying attention at all?” Ryo asks, pausing in the doorway briefly. “Tegoshi’s reports and timing were perfect. It’s as good as seeing.”
“But Tegoshi-senpai didn’t do the shooting,” Yamada insists. “You…”
“I’m only going to say this once because I know you won’t get off my case about it until I do. The most important thing about this job is to know that no matter how good you are at it, it isn’t something you can ever do on your own,” Ryo tells them bluntly. He eyes Yamada first. “It’s about trust. Trusting that your teammates know what they’re doing at least as well as you know what you’re doing.”
He shifts his gaze to Inoo; “And you’ve got to trust that they’ve got your back and let that give you some damned confidence.”
His piece thus said, he lets the door slide shut behind him as he heads down the stairs.
After he’s gone, in the silence that follows, Inoo and Yamada turn to look at each other, maybe for the first time all day.
“Um,” Inoo starts after a beat, licking dry lips, “Nishikido-senpai’s tough.”
Yamada wipes sweat from his brow and manages a shaky smile in return. “Yeah.” Pause. “But I bet we could do that too, if we practiced a little bit more.”
Inoo laughs.
They pack up together, to the sound of the police sirens below.
~~~~~
3.
They’re in the sewers looking for a way in that won’t alert the targets to their presence.
Agent Yaotome makes a face while Agent Takaki attempts to remain stoic; Koyama leads them bravely (as bravely as he can) through a maze of smelly, smelly tunnels. The going is slow because the older explosives expert is favoring his left leg very slightly; it’s the only leftover symptom of a small mishap during NEWS’s last break-in arrest five days ago.
All agents involved kind of wish they could move faster, if only to escape the smell.
“This is disgusting,” Takaki sniffs, and wraps his arms around himself.
“Seriously. I don’t think we can defuse these bombs no matter how hard we try,” Hikaru laughs nervously after a while, and earns himself a strange look from Takaki.
“The poo,” Hikaru clarifies. “It’s a joke about…” Pause. “Never mind.”
“Ah, this way!” Koyama suddenly exclaims, and aims his flashlight down a long passageway. “Watch your step ne, it’s slippery and it wouldn’t be fun if you fell into that at all.”
As he’s talking he nearly slips himself; Takaki hastily reaches out to steady him.
“Like that,” Koyama amends, looking sheepishly down at the water. “Definitely not fun.”
“Nothing about this is fun,” Takaki sighs.
“Speaking of this. Uh… do you do a lot of jobs like this, Koyama-kun?” Hikaru asks, because he’s clearly wanted to since they got the assignment. “I mean… the non-bomb stuff? Because I gotta say…the whole poo thing, not so appealing and kind of a waste of our talent. Your talent.”
Koyama looks thoughtful. “I do,” he admits after a while. “Because there aren’t always bombs, ne, so I get assigned to these kinds of things instead.”
Hikaru sighs. “Great. I guess I can look forward to a full career of future poo-duty.”
Takaki wrinkles his nose and doesn’t say anything, but it’s clear his sentiments are similar to his teammate’s.
Koyama clucks at them, tries to look encouraging. “All parts of a mission are important, ne. Whether you’re the principle like Yamapi is or whether you’re the support, like we are.”
“Support huh? I guess you could call it that. I’m still going to call it Poo-duty,” Hikaru jokes.
Koyama smiles gently. “It’s not really a glorious job ne, not like Ryo-chan’s or Tegoshi’s, but there are lots of little things that need to be done on a mission, right? To take care of all the possibilities so no one else has to worry about them.”
“Possibilities?”
“Un. What if this happens, or what if that happens; someone has to be there to take care of that possibility, even if it isn’t realized, right? That’s why we’re here.”
Hikaru blinks. “In a sewer?”
Koyama nods. “Because it’s possible that there’s a way to save people this way and arrest the bad guys. Because it’s possible that there’s danger, or something else we can take care of while we’re down here. It’s possible we can help the team from down here. That’s why Leader sent us, ne.”
“Sure, but it kind of sucks not knowing what’s going on up there,” Hikaru complains, eventually.
“As much radio silence as we can keep is important in times like these,” Koyama reassures him. “We’ll be okay.”
They keep walking a little longer and Koyama notices that despite his lame attempt at comfort, Takaki is still worrying his bottom lip occasionally, while Hikaru glances around nervously, like he’s waiting for something horrible to happen.
Koyama wants to wring his hands too, for not knowing what’s going on upstairs, but he manages not to because he’s the leader now, the senpai. He’s supposed to teach them.
He wonders if it will be comforting or horrifying to let them know that they'll probably never stop worrying about their teammates. Ever. All that’s in your power is to try and hope for the best.
As he thinks this to himself, he nearly misses the wire.
“Ah!” he shouts suddenly, when he sees it glinting in the light of his flashlight, right in front of his feet.
The outburst is so unexpected Takaki screams, high pitched and panicky.
Hikaru blinks. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Takaki says quickly, looking embarrassed.
Hikaru nods. “That’s good. I mean, yeah.” Pause. “Do you want to let go of my hand now, maybe? I mean, you can keep holding it if you need to but that might be a little awkward. For me, at least.”
Takaki looks down.
To where he’d grabbed Hikaru’s hand on instinct.
He quickly lets go. Clears his throat. “Sorry!”
Koyama laughs. “That’s cute!” he says, and turns to look down at the trip wire by his shoe. “We should probably take care of this, ne.”
“Is that a…”
The older agent nods. “Un. I think this is why Yamapi sent us down here ne. Possibilities. These guys really planned this job a long time in advance.”
He crouches then, and pulls a small tool kit out of his utility belt.
“Yamapi,” Hikaru says, looking a bit starry-eyed, “is really amazing, isn’t he?”
Koyama nods back, just as starry-eyed as his kouhai. “He is, he is! The most amazing.”
He starts to work on the wire. After a minute, he furrows his brow, following the line with his eyes as it leads into the wall on one side and into the water on the other. “Hmm,” he says, “what a weird set up.”
“We can fix it though, right?” Hikaru asks, looking nervous.
Koyama’s brow furrows become deeper and he starts to look troubled. “Come take a look at this,” he says, and waves them over for a lesson in explosive apparatuses.
The two younger agents obediently crouch down beside him and stare at the wire for a while, studying the wall fixture it’s imbedded in and the second end dipping into the water some feet behind them.
“Um… what are we looking for, senpai?” Takaki whispers after a moment.
Koyama blinks. “Oh! Right…” he points to the tunnel a few feet behind them, into which the water is flowing. “The bomb is definitely somewhere in there, judging by the slant of the wire, ne.”
“And…”
“But with this tension and this current, there definitely has to be something attached to the other side of the device, or the wire would have snapped already and we’d all have been blown up.”
“I don’t think I follow,” Hikaru offers, raising his hand. “I mean, you can still defuse it regardless, right?”
“Yes, if we get to the device directly,” Koyama agrees.
“Then…”
“That tunnel,” Koyama starts. “I’m not sure ne, but I think there’s another wire- maybe on the other side- that’s embedded in the wall to keep it balanced. So that means the tunnel running parallel to ours on the other end of the perpendicular tunnel will have a trip wire somewhere along it too.”
“So…”
Koyama looks nervous. “So if I’m right ne, Massu’s team is making their way through on the other side.”
“Oh,” the two younger agents say. “Oh.”
Koyama quickly, worriedly buzzes in on his com-link. “Massu,” he says, “Massu, come in.”
“Koyama, hi!” Massu replies a few seconds later. “This sewer is really smelly, ne.”
“Massu, um, about an hour after we were deployed ne, me and my team ran into a trip wire.”
Massu blinks. “One hour?” Pause. “At Koyama’s rate then you’re nearly there, ne.”
Koyama nods. “Un. You guys came in from the opposite side right? The entrance two miles south of ours?”
“Right. What’s up?”
“I think there’s another wire on your end too; it’s definitely a balance, ne.”
Massu sounds thoughtful. “One hour at Koyama’s rate from where Koyama started with Koyama’s injury means that for us…”
There is a slight pause, the sound of static and footsteps, and then an exclamation of, “Ah! Found it. Eh, it’s really hard to see; we definitely would have triggered it if Koyama hadn’t called us just now.”
Koyama sighs in relief. “If you follow the path of the wire, there should be a tunnel in-between; the bomb is definitely in there. Do you see it?”
“Yup,” Massu replies, whistling softly. “It’s just like you said.”
Koyama nods to himself at Massu’s confirmation and checks his watch. “I’ll have to go in and get it, ne. Massu, don’t move until I say you can, okay?””
A beat.
Then, “Eh, but will you be able to get to it? The water is flowing really fast and your ankle is still swollen.”
Koyama sounds nervous. “Well, I have to do my best, right? That’s why Leader sent us down here.”
Silence.
“Massu?”
“One second,” Massu says, and there is a click that means he’s cut off his com-link from the channel.
Koyama blinks. Pushes the button on his link again. “Massu? Massu, what are you…”
He trails off when he realizes what Massu is doing.
He looks at Takaki and Hikaru and smiles nervously. “My team, ne,” he starts, sweating a bit in concern for Massu, “I really love them a lot.”
~~~~~
4.
Meanwhile, in a tunnel parallel to the one Koyama and his charges are traveling through, Arioka and Okamoto stare as Massu gives them both an apologetic look; he abruptly steps off of the ledge and down into the waist-deep muck-water.
He wrinkles his nose. “Sometimes,” he tells the two rookies sadly, “there are parts of this job that we can do that the others can’t. Even if they’re not always the fun parts.”
And then he smiles-the younger agents think it must be what his brave face consists of-as he starts to wade through the sewage, back towards the tunnel Agent Koyama had indicated just now.
They hasten to follow- however much they don’t want to- and fight the flow of the water behind their senpai as they head deeper into the sewers.
Massu travels quickly despite how hard it is when their boots sink down into the muck and create an unsettlingly strong suction that wants to pulls them down; he tsks to himself as he moves and turns around to tell his two charges, “Koyama ne, he hurt his ankle when he dove to catch one of the hostages in our arrest last week. It wasn’t bad as far as sprains go, but it was still a little purple this morning when I saw it while we were suiting up.”
Arioka and Okamoto share odd looks but don’t say anything; as it is, Agent Masuda has always been one of their more obtuse senpai when it comes to holding a conversation. They figure it will be best just to let him prattle.
But as it turns out they can’t keep silent for long, because Massu pauses and asks them, “How are your teammates?” next, like that is the most logical thing in the world to inquire about after explaining Koyama’s condition to them in more detail than they’d ever needed.
“Um…they’re fine?” Arioka eventually supplies on instinct, when Okamoto doesn’t say anything in lieu of blinking rather animatedly.
“That’s good,” Massu replies brightly, and starts to speed up a little as he follows the wire in the water with his flashlight. “That’s part of this job too sometimes,” he says, “knowing who can do what.”
Arioka coughs politely. “I’m not sure we follow what senpai means.”
Massu blinks, like he hadn’t expected a response like that, like he’d thought the connection between what he’d said earlier and what he’d said just now had been perfectly obvious. He looks sheepish for a moment afterwards, because he knows he’s bad at this kind of thing; it’s why Koyama is the one from their team who teaches academy classes on the weekends. Massu frowns, becoming thoughtful. “Well,” he starts after a moment, “last week Koyama twisted his ankle, so I know that in this water it would hurt him to move; he might slip and fall and injure himself worse. It’s just like I know that this morning Tesshi got a paper cut on his right index finger and last month Shige dislocated his shoulder.”
More odd looks, except slightly creeped out now. “Um…okay.”
“Because last month Shige dislocated his shoulder I also knew his draw time became a little slower too. So in all the work we had until he was completely better, I made sure to go in ahead of him. And because Tesshi’s got a paper cut he’ll type a little slower too; when he gives his cues and stuff to me or to Nishikido-kun or anyone else, I’ll know I might have to adjust for that too. Does that make sense?”
It does, but just barely.
Both of the HSJ agents look like they want to ask how Massu can possibly quantify these things in his head to react to them, how he even noticed something as ridiculous as a paper cut in the first place. But before they can ask, Massu smiles at them and it’s like he can read them too, in his own way; he sees how their shoulders are tense and the muscles in their necks work. He reads the widening of their eyes and the slant of their brows, and to him, all that is the same as if they’d asked the question out loud. He smiles back brightly; “Sometimes,” he tells them again, “there are parts about this job that only we can do.”
And then they find the bomb.
Massu whistles when he sees the complicated device bobbing in the current just at the water’s surface, sealed off in an airtight plastic bag and sporting an impossibly complicated grid of buttons and lights. “And sometimes,” he amends, when they gather around it, “there are parts about this job we can’t do.”
He clicks on his com-link again after that and very calmly proceeds to describe the device to an anxiously clucking Koyama.
After initially berating him for taking hasty action like that on his own, Koyama proceeds to patiently instruct him- step by step- as to how to defuse it. Afterwards, he even promises to treat Massu out to dinner.
It’s only when everything is said and done that Okamoto speaks up for the first time all day.
“So we’re gonna have to do stuff like that too?” he asks, and takes Arioka’s hand as they pull each other up out of the water and back onto dry land. “Defuse bombs?”
Massu smiles. “And hack files and shoot bad guys and play bad guys and a bunch more.”
Arioka snorts a little. “So is that why we don’t officially have a cool title? Because we just do… everything.”
Massu looks puzzled. “You just do whatever you have to that will protect your teammates. Because your title is Team Protector, isn’t it?”
Neither member of the HSJ has anything to counter that.
~~~~~
They continue on in parallel to Koyama’s team towards the bank’s basement entrance, because even though that one bomb has been deactivated, there is still a lot more work to do.
“There are still a lot more possibilities, ne,” Koyama says tiredly to his team as they move.
“There are still a lot of things to do that only we can do,” Massu tells his team as well.
As it turns out, they end up finding six more bombs between them.
(Part Two)
Universe: JE ( Government AU)
Theme/Topic: NewS as senpai their kouhai look up to.
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: HSJ, NEWS, Tackey, Tsubasa
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC, stupidity.
Word Count: 10,756
Summary: Six separate stories come together in the pursuit of one happy ending. Ten rookies each learn something very important.
Dedication: Written for seca’s (very, very late) b-day request! Sorry I don’t know HSJ that well, but mousapelli helped give me some cliff’s notes and some betaing, so hopefully what I wrote is an okay facsimile of the group you know. Also thanks to crystallekil for taking a look at this for me as well.
A/N: The title of this pretty much references “We are Legends,” but not so much that reading it is absolutely necessary (though recommended?). And I think I’ve learned my lesson. NO MORE HSJ. NEVER AGAIN.
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!
1.
“We’re going to instate them next month. Officially,” Tackey says at random one morning, as he and Yamapi sit down to a quick breakfast in the commissary together before hours. Tsubasa is still at the counter, very deliberately deciding between the chocolate and the strawberry milk.
Yamapi blinks when he hears Tackey’s announcement and puts down his vegetable juice; he forgets to screw the cap back on. “Them?” he asks, still half-asleep but polite anyway.
“The HSJUMP,” Tackey clarifies. He sips his coffee and arches two perfect brows across the table at his kouhai. “HSJ for short.”
Yamapi blinks some more and starts to wake up in earnest when he realizes what Tackey means by that. “Officially? Isn’t it too early?” He sounds concerned.
Tackey shrugs. “Crime doesn’t wait,” he explains simply. “And we can’t afford to either. Everyone’s being stretched too thin. Tsubasa worked on a new budget; there’s finally room for another team to graduate from the junior ranks.”
Despite the bags under his eyes agreeing with Takizawa’s whole statement about being stretched too thin, Yamapi still looks troubled at the news. “They aren’t…”
Tackey laughs a little because he knows exactly where Yamapi’s concerns lie. They’re the same as his. “Ready? Experienced? Capable?”
Yamapi frowns. “Prepared,” he finishes quietly, and remembers having had the exact same feeling about himself some years ago, under the very same circumstances. He’d been too young back then, too scared and too uncertain to do this job without someone there to guide him through it. He’s pretty sure that he’s seen that very same sentiment written all over those kids’ faces too, that same feeling of being lost and not knowing how to react and only having a heap of expectations thrust open them. It’s too early and maybe they’re even less equipped to do this job than NEWS had been, all those years ago. “They aren’t prepared for this yet,” he repeats to Tackey firmly, “not just like that. Not as they are.”
Tackey’s lips quirk when he sees something like resolve in Yamapi’s eyes, the familiar circumstances bringing the young director fully to life despite the early hour. “I know,” he tells his subordinate wryly, looking strangely expectant. “But they’re good; almost as good as your team was five years ago. And I think that with the right help…they have the potential to be the ones who take us to number six.” He smiles mysteriously.
Yamapi sees the look on Tackey’s face and thinks that maybe he’s being played somehow, knows it even. But regardless, it doesn’t stop him from inevitably asking Tackey “Can we help?” anyway.
Something about the situation demands it; something in his chest knows it’s the right thing to do.
Tackey smiles at Yamapi knowingly when he hears the magic words. “Well,” he starts, looking pleased and proud all at once, “there is something you can do…”
~~~~~
2.
Ryo looks down at the two brats sitting on either side of him and sighs; Agent Yamada smiles back at him in that fake, bright way that used to make Ryo hate everything about Tokyo while Agent Inoo looks down quickly, at his gun or maybe his feet-anywhere that isn’t at Ryo’s eyes.
“Alright,” the older sniper starts gruffly after a moment, “Pi said we were babysitting today, but I didn’t actually think there would be real babies involved until I saw you two suit up this morning. Are you locked?”
“Yes!” Yamada says, and holds up his gun obediently.
“Yes,” Inoo echoes, and still looks kind of nervous. Like he’s waiting for someone to reach out and bite him any second now. Ryo is almost tempted to do it, but manages to refrain.
He sighs instead. “I know they said you’d be backing us up today,” Ryo begins in measured tones, “but I want you to know that they lied.”
The two younger agents look confused; Ryo smiles at that, but not in a particularly pleasant way. “Even though you’ve got your shit out and ready to go and even though you’re sitting in the B and C positions, I want you both to know that you’re strictly here to watch me be awesome. I’ve already got all the backup I need.”
Yamada blinks and looks around the empty rooftop. Then raises his hand obediently, like the perfect little student he’s always been. “Senpai,” he begins, and earns himself a slightly raised eyebrow, “I mean, Sir,” he amends quickly, “there’s no one else here to back you up but us.”
Inoo nods automatically.
“Just take your damned positions,” Ryo snorts and locks his weapon, peering through the scope and smoothly ignoring them both. “Amateurs.”
Beside him, Yamada looks excited and takes the B while Inoo immediately moves into the C position.
Ryo looks at them both and wonders why they didn’t even janken for the good spot.
He shrugs mentally; it’s none of his business. All NEWS is doing is overseeing the junior agents on missions over the next few weeks, not taking deep looks into their inner group workings.
“We’re like training wheels,” is how he’d put it earlier, after Yamapi had given them the briefing.
“We’re the senpai,” Koyama had corrected responsibly, and looked excited at the prospect of helping cultivate a whole new generation of agents to help protect the world.
Ryo currently thinks that if that’s the case the world is a little doomed; he sees it out of the corner of his eye, that pride Yamada has, that ambitious spark that says he wants to take care of it all, that he wants to be the hero, the center of attention.
And fifty yards away, Inoo fiddles silently with the scope, shoulders hunched tight over his weapon and looking like a roof fixture instead of a marksman.
Ryo endures it all for about three seconds, before he turns to Yamada. “You,” he says, “take the C.”
Yamada blinks. “Eh? But…”
“I said take the goddamed C,” Ryo tells him simply, “If I have to repeat myself again I won’t. I’ll just push you off of the roof.”
He turns to Inoo after that, pointing because he can’t remember the kid’s name. “Nervous guy,” he barks, and figures that’s close enough, “You take the B.”
Inoo looks like a deer caught in headlights. “W-what?”
Yamada is similarly off-put. “Sir, did I do something wrong?”
“I’d rather have the nervous idiot sitting next to me than the glory hound,” Ryo shrugs.
Yamada looks wounded. “Sir,” he starts, “I was the number one shooter in my class. Top of the academy. I can handle this.”
“I’m the number one shooter in the country,” Ryo says, slowly, “And that makes you-at best-number two. So, Number Two, shut the hell up.”
“Sir…”
Ryo grins. “Actually, call me Number One. I like that better.”
Yamada looks vaguely disbelieving. “Number…One?”
Ryo smiles. “Get in the C, Number Two.”
Yamada and Inoo quickly do as they’re told before Ryo makes good on his throwing-off-the-roof threat.
“Alright,” Ryo starts, eyeing Inoo once he settles. “Stop hunching your shoulders.”
He does.
“Relax your arm a little.”
He does that too.
“Sir…” Inoo starts after a moment, under his breath. “Yamada’s better than I am.”
“I’m better than both of you,” Ryo replies. “Now keep your eye on the target.”
Neither agent can do anything but obey.
~~~~~
They keep their eyes on their targets in the building across the street for an hour and a half after that, not moving or speaking. The two younger agents get progressively more and more nervous as the situation plays out, as the robbers make their hostage demands and the helicopters fly overhead in continuous loops. They glance anxiously down at the press vans and crowds of onlookers who are being pushed back by police backup on the street. Inoo and Yamada are young and get antsy quickly; Ryo can see them thrumming with nervous excitement, their fingers brushing the triggers of their rifles automatically whenever a dark figure passes by the window. More notably, he can see how they don’t look at each other once, don’t say a word.
Eventually, Ryo pulls out his DS Lite and turns on Monster Hunter.
The younger agents are both-needless to say-a little bit bewildered.
Another figure pauses in front of the window sometime around the end of hour two, as they’re approaching hour three. “I’ve got one in my sights,” Inoo reports dutifully.
He is ignored by Ryo, and the figure passes through again.
“Out of range,” Inoo amends.
“In my sight now,” Yamada replies, and seems even more impatient than his teammate. “I’ve got an open shot. Should I take it?”
“Not yet,” Ryo tells them, and doesn’t even glance up from his game.
Yamada looks disbelieving. “Sir. an opportunity this good won’t present itself again. I’ve got a clear shot. I think this is the best course of…”
“Despite what you think, it’s not your decision,” Ryo snorts, and flips his game closed.
“But…”
Inside the building, the lights promptly go off.
A beat.
“Well now we can’t see,” Yamada sighs, looking very close to sulking. Ryo almost considers it cute, but thinks better of it. “Our chance is gone.”
Ryo ignores him by tapping his com-link to a different channel. “Well?” he asks.
A buzz of static and then a voice responds, “Ryo-tan, we finally found where they locked up the hostages and everyone inside is prepared! You’re clear to go, ne.”
Ryo smiles. “Great.”
Then he turns to the younger two. “Alright, now we can shoot them.”
“We can’t see,” Yamada reminds him.
“Oh that.” Ryo taps his ear again. “Gimme a light, Tego-nyan.”
“Hai!” Tegoshi sing-songs, sounding only too glad.
When he speaks again, it’s quite serious. “We’ve got one 180cm bruiser twelve yards from the file cabinet,” he informs Ryo. “Three yards in front of the desk.”
Yamada blinks. “The file cabinet?”
Inoo looks just as lost. “Desk?”
Ryo sighs. “You two are hopeless,” he mutters, and starts to adjust his gun slowly, clearly only for their benefit. He moves the nozzle about five centimeters to the right without having to look through the scope. “Fifteen yards from the file cabinet.” Then he changes the angle, pushes the nose down a bit. “Three yards in front of the desk. What the hell were you two watching for the last three hours if you can’t even remember something as simple as the layout of the room?”
Inoo looks sheepish while Yamada just stares.
Ryo very nearly rolls his eyes. “Next,” he says.
“Second robber five yards from the front door, about 165cm but crouched.”
Ryo adjusts his gun again, quickly, almost thoughtlessly. “Got it.”
“And the last,” Tegoshi tells him, “is smack dab in the middle of the third window and the fourth window from the left; leaning against the bank counter; roughly 177cm tall, weight shifted backwards slightly. You’ll have to go through the wall.”
Ryo’s nozzle moves one last time.
“Got it.”
Needless to say, Inoo and Yamada are very, very confused. “What is going on?” Yamada asks. “You can’t possibly be planning to…”
Ryo doesn’t say anything, returning his gun to the first position he’d taken and squeezing the trigger once.
He re-aims his gun and fires again less than three seconds later.
And then readjusts to the last position and shoots a third time.
“Hit, hit and a wound to the right arm. The last one dove to cover after the first shot, Ryo-tan,” Tegoshi responds an instant later.
Ryo snorts. “Damn,” he says. “Okay next.”
“He’s crawling around a foot below the countertop, two feet back.”
Ryo smiles, resetting his sights in less than a second and firing again.
A breath.
Then, “Incapacitating hit, Ryo-tan!” Tegoshi chirps sweetly. “Sasuga, ne.”
“Yeah, well I’m amazing,” Ryo tells him, voice strangely warm when he does. “Over and out.”
But Yamada and Inoo miss that odd gentleness entirely because they’re too busy staring at Ryo. Blind shooting isn’t something that happens a lot in the agency simply because it can’t; the two younger agents never imagined getting to witness it first hand. Three times.
“Amazing,” Yamada breathes, and looks up at Ryo with bright eyes, with admiration that he’d never felt as the academy’s most recent shooting genius. Maybe because back there, no one had been better than him.
Inoo is slightly more reserved in his admiration, a little more wary but no less impressed.
“You can blind shoot,” Yamada marvels out loud. “That’s… oh wow.”
Ryo just sits back and begins packing up his equipment, looking unfazed as the agents on the ground start rush the building downstairs. “Blind shooting?” he snorts. “What part of that was blind?”
“You shot three targets down in pitch blackness!” Yamada enthuses after him, because he needs to. “How did you do that so quickly? So accurately? How did you remember exactly where to set your sights after you were given the coordinates?”
“It was amazing,” Inoo adds, when Ryo stands and starts to head for the exit. “We’ve…we’ve never seen something like that before. Ever.”
“Jesus Christ, weren’t either of you paying attention at all?” Ryo asks, pausing in the doorway briefly. “Tegoshi’s reports and timing were perfect. It’s as good as seeing.”
“But Tegoshi-senpai didn’t do the shooting,” Yamada insists. “You…”
“I’m only going to say this once because I know you won’t get off my case about it until I do. The most important thing about this job is to know that no matter how good you are at it, it isn’t something you can ever do on your own,” Ryo tells them bluntly. He eyes Yamada first. “It’s about trust. Trusting that your teammates know what they’re doing at least as well as you know what you’re doing.”
He shifts his gaze to Inoo; “And you’ve got to trust that they’ve got your back and let that give you some damned confidence.”
His piece thus said, he lets the door slide shut behind him as he heads down the stairs.
After he’s gone, in the silence that follows, Inoo and Yamada turn to look at each other, maybe for the first time all day.
“Um,” Inoo starts after a beat, licking dry lips, “Nishikido-senpai’s tough.”
Yamada wipes sweat from his brow and manages a shaky smile in return. “Yeah.” Pause. “But I bet we could do that too, if we practiced a little bit more.”
Inoo laughs.
They pack up together, to the sound of the police sirens below.
~~~~~
3.
They’re in the sewers looking for a way in that won’t alert the targets to their presence.
Agent Yaotome makes a face while Agent Takaki attempts to remain stoic; Koyama leads them bravely (as bravely as he can) through a maze of smelly, smelly tunnels. The going is slow because the older explosives expert is favoring his left leg very slightly; it’s the only leftover symptom of a small mishap during NEWS’s last break-in arrest five days ago.
All agents involved kind of wish they could move faster, if only to escape the smell.
“This is disgusting,” Takaki sniffs, and wraps his arms around himself.
“Seriously. I don’t think we can defuse these bombs no matter how hard we try,” Hikaru laughs nervously after a while, and earns himself a strange look from Takaki.
“The poo,” Hikaru clarifies. “It’s a joke about…” Pause. “Never mind.”
“Ah, this way!” Koyama suddenly exclaims, and aims his flashlight down a long passageway. “Watch your step ne, it’s slippery and it wouldn’t be fun if you fell into that at all.”
As he’s talking he nearly slips himself; Takaki hastily reaches out to steady him.
“Like that,” Koyama amends, looking sheepishly down at the water. “Definitely not fun.”
“Nothing about this is fun,” Takaki sighs.
“Speaking of this. Uh… do you do a lot of jobs like this, Koyama-kun?” Hikaru asks, because he’s clearly wanted to since they got the assignment. “I mean… the non-bomb stuff? Because I gotta say…the whole poo thing, not so appealing and kind of a waste of our talent. Your talent.”
Koyama looks thoughtful. “I do,” he admits after a while. “Because there aren’t always bombs, ne, so I get assigned to these kinds of things instead.”
Hikaru sighs. “Great. I guess I can look forward to a full career of future poo-duty.”
Takaki wrinkles his nose and doesn’t say anything, but it’s clear his sentiments are similar to his teammate’s.
Koyama clucks at them, tries to look encouraging. “All parts of a mission are important, ne. Whether you’re the principle like Yamapi is or whether you’re the support, like we are.”
“Support huh? I guess you could call it that. I’m still going to call it Poo-duty,” Hikaru jokes.
Koyama smiles gently. “It’s not really a glorious job ne, not like Ryo-chan’s or Tegoshi’s, but there are lots of little things that need to be done on a mission, right? To take care of all the possibilities so no one else has to worry about them.”
“Possibilities?”
“Un. What if this happens, or what if that happens; someone has to be there to take care of that possibility, even if it isn’t realized, right? That’s why we’re here.”
Hikaru blinks. “In a sewer?”
Koyama nods. “Because it’s possible that there’s a way to save people this way and arrest the bad guys. Because it’s possible that there’s danger, or something else we can take care of while we’re down here. It’s possible we can help the team from down here. That’s why Leader sent us, ne.”
“Sure, but it kind of sucks not knowing what’s going on up there,” Hikaru complains, eventually.
“As much radio silence as we can keep is important in times like these,” Koyama reassures him. “We’ll be okay.”
They keep walking a little longer and Koyama notices that despite his lame attempt at comfort, Takaki is still worrying his bottom lip occasionally, while Hikaru glances around nervously, like he’s waiting for something horrible to happen.
Koyama wants to wring his hands too, for not knowing what’s going on upstairs, but he manages not to because he’s the leader now, the senpai. He’s supposed to teach them.
He wonders if it will be comforting or horrifying to let them know that they'll probably never stop worrying about their teammates. Ever. All that’s in your power is to try and hope for the best.
As he thinks this to himself, he nearly misses the wire.
“Ah!” he shouts suddenly, when he sees it glinting in the light of his flashlight, right in front of his feet.
The outburst is so unexpected Takaki screams, high pitched and panicky.
Hikaru blinks. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Takaki says quickly, looking embarrassed.
Hikaru nods. “That’s good. I mean, yeah.” Pause. “Do you want to let go of my hand now, maybe? I mean, you can keep holding it if you need to but that might be a little awkward. For me, at least.”
Takaki looks down.
To where he’d grabbed Hikaru’s hand on instinct.
He quickly lets go. Clears his throat. “Sorry!”
Koyama laughs. “That’s cute!” he says, and turns to look down at the trip wire by his shoe. “We should probably take care of this, ne.”
“Is that a…”
The older agent nods. “Un. I think this is why Yamapi sent us down here ne. Possibilities. These guys really planned this job a long time in advance.”
He crouches then, and pulls a small tool kit out of his utility belt.
“Yamapi,” Hikaru says, looking a bit starry-eyed, “is really amazing, isn’t he?”
Koyama nods back, just as starry-eyed as his kouhai. “He is, he is! The most amazing.”
He starts to work on the wire. After a minute, he furrows his brow, following the line with his eyes as it leads into the wall on one side and into the water on the other. “Hmm,” he says, “what a weird set up.”
“We can fix it though, right?” Hikaru asks, looking nervous.
Koyama’s brow furrows become deeper and he starts to look troubled. “Come take a look at this,” he says, and waves them over for a lesson in explosive apparatuses.
The two younger agents obediently crouch down beside him and stare at the wire for a while, studying the wall fixture it’s imbedded in and the second end dipping into the water some feet behind them.
“Um… what are we looking for, senpai?” Takaki whispers after a moment.
Koyama blinks. “Oh! Right…” he points to the tunnel a few feet behind them, into which the water is flowing. “The bomb is definitely somewhere in there, judging by the slant of the wire, ne.”
“And…”
“But with this tension and this current, there definitely has to be something attached to the other side of the device, or the wire would have snapped already and we’d all have been blown up.”
“I don’t think I follow,” Hikaru offers, raising his hand. “I mean, you can still defuse it regardless, right?”
“Yes, if we get to the device directly,” Koyama agrees.
“Then…”
“That tunnel,” Koyama starts. “I’m not sure ne, but I think there’s another wire- maybe on the other side- that’s embedded in the wall to keep it balanced. So that means the tunnel running parallel to ours on the other end of the perpendicular tunnel will have a trip wire somewhere along it too.”
“So…”
Koyama looks nervous. “So if I’m right ne, Massu’s team is making their way through on the other side.”
“Oh,” the two younger agents say. “Oh.”
Koyama quickly, worriedly buzzes in on his com-link. “Massu,” he says, “Massu, come in.”
“Koyama, hi!” Massu replies a few seconds later. “This sewer is really smelly, ne.”
“Massu, um, about an hour after we were deployed ne, me and my team ran into a trip wire.”
Massu blinks. “One hour?” Pause. “At Koyama’s rate then you’re nearly there, ne.”
Koyama nods. “Un. You guys came in from the opposite side right? The entrance two miles south of ours?”
“Right. What’s up?”
“I think there’s another wire on your end too; it’s definitely a balance, ne.”
Massu sounds thoughtful. “One hour at Koyama’s rate from where Koyama started with Koyama’s injury means that for us…”
There is a slight pause, the sound of static and footsteps, and then an exclamation of, “Ah! Found it. Eh, it’s really hard to see; we definitely would have triggered it if Koyama hadn’t called us just now.”
Koyama sighs in relief. “If you follow the path of the wire, there should be a tunnel in-between; the bomb is definitely in there. Do you see it?”
“Yup,” Massu replies, whistling softly. “It’s just like you said.”
Koyama nods to himself at Massu’s confirmation and checks his watch. “I’ll have to go in and get it, ne. Massu, don’t move until I say you can, okay?””
A beat.
Then, “Eh, but will you be able to get to it? The water is flowing really fast and your ankle is still swollen.”
Koyama sounds nervous. “Well, I have to do my best, right? That’s why Leader sent us down here.”
Silence.
“Massu?”
“One second,” Massu says, and there is a click that means he’s cut off his com-link from the channel.
Koyama blinks. Pushes the button on his link again. “Massu? Massu, what are you…”
He trails off when he realizes what Massu is doing.
He looks at Takaki and Hikaru and smiles nervously. “My team, ne,” he starts, sweating a bit in concern for Massu, “I really love them a lot.”
~~~~~
4.
Meanwhile, in a tunnel parallel to the one Koyama and his charges are traveling through, Arioka and Okamoto stare as Massu gives them both an apologetic look; he abruptly steps off of the ledge and down into the waist-deep muck-water.
He wrinkles his nose. “Sometimes,” he tells the two rookies sadly, “there are parts of this job that we can do that the others can’t. Even if they’re not always the fun parts.”
And then he smiles-the younger agents think it must be what his brave face consists of-as he starts to wade through the sewage, back towards the tunnel Agent Koyama had indicated just now.
They hasten to follow- however much they don’t want to- and fight the flow of the water behind their senpai as they head deeper into the sewers.
Massu travels quickly despite how hard it is when their boots sink down into the muck and create an unsettlingly strong suction that wants to pulls them down; he tsks to himself as he moves and turns around to tell his two charges, “Koyama ne, he hurt his ankle when he dove to catch one of the hostages in our arrest last week. It wasn’t bad as far as sprains go, but it was still a little purple this morning when I saw it while we were suiting up.”
Arioka and Okamoto share odd looks but don’t say anything; as it is, Agent Masuda has always been one of their more obtuse senpai when it comes to holding a conversation. They figure it will be best just to let him prattle.
But as it turns out they can’t keep silent for long, because Massu pauses and asks them, “How are your teammates?” next, like that is the most logical thing in the world to inquire about after explaining Koyama’s condition to them in more detail than they’d ever needed.
“Um…they’re fine?” Arioka eventually supplies on instinct, when Okamoto doesn’t say anything in lieu of blinking rather animatedly.
“That’s good,” Massu replies brightly, and starts to speed up a little as he follows the wire in the water with his flashlight. “That’s part of this job too sometimes,” he says, “knowing who can do what.”
Arioka coughs politely. “I’m not sure we follow what senpai means.”
Massu blinks, like he hadn’t expected a response like that, like he’d thought the connection between what he’d said earlier and what he’d said just now had been perfectly obvious. He looks sheepish for a moment afterwards, because he knows he’s bad at this kind of thing; it’s why Koyama is the one from their team who teaches academy classes on the weekends. Massu frowns, becoming thoughtful. “Well,” he starts after a moment, “last week Koyama twisted his ankle, so I know that in this water it would hurt him to move; he might slip and fall and injure himself worse. It’s just like I know that this morning Tesshi got a paper cut on his right index finger and last month Shige dislocated his shoulder.”
More odd looks, except slightly creeped out now. “Um…okay.”
“Because last month Shige dislocated his shoulder I also knew his draw time became a little slower too. So in all the work we had until he was completely better, I made sure to go in ahead of him. And because Tesshi’s got a paper cut he’ll type a little slower too; when he gives his cues and stuff to me or to Nishikido-kun or anyone else, I’ll know I might have to adjust for that too. Does that make sense?”
It does, but just barely.
Both of the HSJ agents look like they want to ask how Massu can possibly quantify these things in his head to react to them, how he even noticed something as ridiculous as a paper cut in the first place. But before they can ask, Massu smiles at them and it’s like he can read them too, in his own way; he sees how their shoulders are tense and the muscles in their necks work. He reads the widening of their eyes and the slant of their brows, and to him, all that is the same as if they’d asked the question out loud. He smiles back brightly; “Sometimes,” he tells them again, “there are parts about this job that only we can do.”
And then they find the bomb.
Massu whistles when he sees the complicated device bobbing in the current just at the water’s surface, sealed off in an airtight plastic bag and sporting an impossibly complicated grid of buttons and lights. “And sometimes,” he amends, when they gather around it, “there are parts about this job we can’t do.”
He clicks on his com-link again after that and very calmly proceeds to describe the device to an anxiously clucking Koyama.
After initially berating him for taking hasty action like that on his own, Koyama proceeds to patiently instruct him- step by step- as to how to defuse it. Afterwards, he even promises to treat Massu out to dinner.
It’s only when everything is said and done that Okamoto speaks up for the first time all day.
“So we’re gonna have to do stuff like that too?” he asks, and takes Arioka’s hand as they pull each other up out of the water and back onto dry land. “Defuse bombs?”
Massu smiles. “And hack files and shoot bad guys and play bad guys and a bunch more.”
Arioka snorts a little. “So is that why we don’t officially have a cool title? Because we just do… everything.”
Massu looks puzzled. “You just do whatever you have to that will protect your teammates. Because your title is Team Protector, isn’t it?”
Neither member of the HSJ has anything to counter that.
~~~~~
They continue on in parallel to Koyama’s team towards the bank’s basement entrance, because even though that one bomb has been deactivated, there is still a lot more work to do.
“There are still a lot more possibilities, ne,” Koyama says tiredly to his team as they move.
“There are still a lot of things to do that only we can do,” Massu tells his team as well.
As it turns out, they end up finding six more bombs between them.
(Part Two)