[Spy Arashi: Humble Beginnings] Chapter 1. Aiba Masaki
Title: Spy Arashi: Humble Beginnings
Chapter: 01. Aiba Masaki
Rating: G
Pairing: General Arashi friendship
A/N: How could I have forgotten? Special thanks to gurajiorasu and my sis for reading and encouraging me to post the fic! In case you're lost, the story starts off from roughly... 12 years before the incident mentioned in the prologue.
Master post here.
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It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, a group of young adults were enjoying a game of basketball in the park. A little boy sat in the shade nearby, watching intently.
The basket ballers thought nothing more of the young boy as they continued on with their game. After the adults left, the shy boy got up from his seat and started practicing basketball on his own, trying to remember the passing, dribbling and faking moves he had seen earlier and executing them against imaginary opponents. The routine repeated itself for several weeks, until one day the basket ballers finally approached the boy, curious as to why he was watching them week on week. They soon learnt that the boy was very interested in basketball, and aspired to become a professional basket baller. Soon, the little boy joined the group in their basketball game weekly.
"Aiba-kun? Why are you crying? Are you alright?" Kimura was in the park for a jog, and was surprised when he saw a familiar figure slumped why the bench in the park, sobbing uncontrollably. Aiba nodded wordlessly. "Come on, you are a big boy already, big boys don’t cry. Tell me what happened." Kimura can still remember the little child who had watched their basketball game intently each Saturday. It has been years since they first met, and each of them had gone busy and stopped their weekly basketball practices, but Aiba had kept in contact with them. He was particularly close to Kimura, treating him like an elder brother. Perhaps it was because Kimura had a soft spot for kids that the other members of SMAP would never be able to understand. Perhaps there was something special about the ever persistent and cheerful Aiba that drew this attention… Either way, both of them have become amazingly close despite the age gap.
Mumbling to himself, Aiba recalled how he had attended the try-outs for the province’s basketball team, only to fall short for the third year in a row. He was already 18, and it was unlikely that he’ll ever get accepted again due to his old age. Kimura sighed. It’s the Aiba he knew alright, ever persistent in pursuing his dreams, only that luck wasn’t quite on his side.
"Hmm… Kimura-kun, what do you do for a living anyway? I’ve never heard you talking about your work before…"
"Ah… I erm… I work in the police force."
"Eh? Kakoii ne! Tell me more about it!’
Aiba-kun was awestruck by the stories and incidents about Kimura’s work at the police force. He silently resolved to enter the police force too like his idol someday.
It was a hectic day for Kimura. He had just been promoted head the recruitments at the Agency, and the current circumstances at the Agency was not particularly newbie friendly. Fresh threats of terrorist attacks from a group known as the Al-Qaeda combined with fresh memories from the Sarin Gas attack meant that there was a lot of pressuring and questions regarding the safety of Japan. Politicians and military men alike were worried about the countries security, particularly as the Japan Self-Defense Force had been limited to a purely defensive role after War World Two, and high military spending has not been the country’s top priority in a long time. With the increasingly real threat of terrorist fanatics though, the Agency was told to pull their weight and step up on recruitment, training and expansion.
Rapid expansion was a tough task for the Agency though. To ensure that the agents picked were of suitable character and did not pose a security risk, thorough background checks had to be carried out. As with all things though, these background checks took time and manpower, both of which the Agency was short on. This meant that Kimura was constantly busy attending meetings; external meetings with leaders in the police force and military, as well as internal meetings to decide if a particular candidate was suitable for the Agency. On top of it all, he was burdened with the problem of having to vet the examination papers and tasks for their entrance examination. For the first time ever, they had decided to open up the Agency doors to members of the police force in the form of holding an entrance examination, rather than only inviting selected, talented individuals to join their cause. The Agency had never held such a large-scale recruitment exercise before. Even though they were selecting from a group of capable policemen, the demand from the prime minister to increase their manpower by 30% within 3 years still made everyone nervous. The demand was placed shortly after the Sarin Gas attack in '95, and now they were in the last year of their deadline, and still short of a good number of recruits to meet the quota. Sure, Kimura understood the need for more manpower to protect the security of the country, but picking Agents in such haste wasn’t very good for the AGENCY’s security… Not to mention that the current agents were already burdened with various tasks member of the inner cabinet had demanded from them… Kimura sighed as he head to the café downstairs for a late lunch.
"Kimura-kun!" Kimura was jerked out of his thoughts when a tanned young man came bounding up to him.
"Ah, it’s you Aiba-kun" Kimura smiled in spite of himself. It’s hard not to smile around the radiant youth.
"Senpai! Just where in the police force do you work in? How come I barely see you around? Will I ever be able to work with you?" Aiba bustled on and on, he had only met Kimura at work once before in his several years of work in the police force, and recently Kimura had been way too busy to even return Aiba’s messages, so naturally Aiba was very excited to meet the older man.
Kimura sighed and shook his head. After a long pause he finally replied "I’m sorry I haven had time to reply to any of your messages in the recent months, work has not been kind on me. To make up for that I’ll drop you on a hint - I heard there’ll be some kind of recruitment drive around here." With that, Kimura smiled at the puzzled young man and left.
‘Aiba-kun isn’t the smartest guy around, but his passion and determination would surely count for something? Either way, he still has to pass the entrance tests on his own after all’, Kimura thought Although he had broken the rules by letting Aiba know about the recruitment drive, Kimura was certain that the series of merciless test would weed out the bandwagons from those who were true of heart.
'Recruitment drive?' Aiba’s eyes widened in excitement as he thought back on the words of his respected senpai. 'I must make sure I get recruited!’
[Previous Chapter] [Next Chapter]
Chapter: 01. Aiba Masaki
Rating: G
Pairing: General Arashi friendship
A/N: How could I have forgotten? Special thanks to gurajiorasu and my sis for reading and encouraging me to post the fic! In case you're lost, the story starts off from roughly... 12 years before the incident mentioned in the prologue.
Master post here.
[Previous Chapter] [Next Chapter]
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, a group of young adults were enjoying a game of basketball in the park. A little boy sat in the shade nearby, watching intently.
The basket ballers thought nothing more of the young boy as they continued on with their game. After the adults left, the shy boy got up from his seat and started practicing basketball on his own, trying to remember the passing, dribbling and faking moves he had seen earlier and executing them against imaginary opponents. The routine repeated itself for several weeks, until one day the basket ballers finally approached the boy, curious as to why he was watching them week on week. They soon learnt that the boy was very interested in basketball, and aspired to become a professional basket baller. Soon, the little boy joined the group in their basketball game weekly.
"Aiba-kun? Why are you crying? Are you alright?" Kimura was in the park for a jog, and was surprised when he saw a familiar figure slumped why the bench in the park, sobbing uncontrollably. Aiba nodded wordlessly. "Come on, you are a big boy already, big boys don’t cry. Tell me what happened." Kimura can still remember the little child who had watched their basketball game intently each Saturday. It has been years since they first met, and each of them had gone busy and stopped their weekly basketball practices, but Aiba had kept in contact with them. He was particularly close to Kimura, treating him like an elder brother. Perhaps it was because Kimura had a soft spot for kids that the other members of SMAP would never be able to understand. Perhaps there was something special about the ever persistent and cheerful Aiba that drew this attention… Either way, both of them have become amazingly close despite the age gap.
Mumbling to himself, Aiba recalled how he had attended the try-outs for the province’s basketball team, only to fall short for the third year in a row. He was already 18, and it was unlikely that he’ll ever get accepted again due to his old age. Kimura sighed. It’s the Aiba he knew alright, ever persistent in pursuing his dreams, only that luck wasn’t quite on his side.
"Hmm… Kimura-kun, what do you do for a living anyway? I’ve never heard you talking about your work before…"
"Ah… I erm… I work in the police force."
"Eh? Kakoii ne! Tell me more about it!’
Aiba-kun was awestruck by the stories and incidents about Kimura’s work at the police force. He silently resolved to enter the police force too like his idol someday.
It was a hectic day for Kimura. He had just been promoted head the recruitments at the Agency, and the current circumstances at the Agency was not particularly newbie friendly. Fresh threats of terrorist attacks from a group known as the Al-Qaeda combined with fresh memories from the Sarin Gas attack meant that there was a lot of pressuring and questions regarding the safety of Japan. Politicians and military men alike were worried about the countries security, particularly as the Japan Self-Defense Force had been limited to a purely defensive role after War World Two, and high military spending has not been the country’s top priority in a long time. With the increasingly real threat of terrorist fanatics though, the Agency was told to pull their weight and step up on recruitment, training and expansion.
Rapid expansion was a tough task for the Agency though. To ensure that the agents picked were of suitable character and did not pose a security risk, thorough background checks had to be carried out. As with all things though, these background checks took time and manpower, both of which the Agency was short on. This meant that Kimura was constantly busy attending meetings; external meetings with leaders in the police force and military, as well as internal meetings to decide if a particular candidate was suitable for the Agency. On top of it all, he was burdened with the problem of having to vet the examination papers and tasks for their entrance examination. For the first time ever, they had decided to open up the Agency doors to members of the police force in the form of holding an entrance examination, rather than only inviting selected, talented individuals to join their cause. The Agency had never held such a large-scale recruitment exercise before. Even though they were selecting from a group of capable policemen, the demand from the prime minister to increase their manpower by 30% within 3 years still made everyone nervous. The demand was placed shortly after the Sarin Gas attack in '95, and now they were in the last year of their deadline, and still short of a good number of recruits to meet the quota. Sure, Kimura understood the need for more manpower to protect the security of the country, but picking Agents in such haste wasn’t very good for the AGENCY’s security… Not to mention that the current agents were already burdened with various tasks member of the inner cabinet had demanded from them… Kimura sighed as he head to the café downstairs for a late lunch.
"Kimura-kun!" Kimura was jerked out of his thoughts when a tanned young man came bounding up to him.
"Ah, it’s you Aiba-kun" Kimura smiled in spite of himself. It’s hard not to smile around the radiant youth.
"Senpai! Just where in the police force do you work in? How come I barely see you around? Will I ever be able to work with you?" Aiba bustled on and on, he had only met Kimura at work once before in his several years of work in the police force, and recently Kimura had been way too busy to even return Aiba’s messages, so naturally Aiba was very excited to meet the older man.
Kimura sighed and shook his head. After a long pause he finally replied "I’m sorry I haven had time to reply to any of your messages in the recent months, work has not been kind on me. To make up for that I’ll drop you on a hint - I heard there’ll be some kind of recruitment drive around here." With that, Kimura smiled at the puzzled young man and left.
‘Aiba-kun isn’t the smartest guy around, but his passion and determination would surely count for something? Either way, he still has to pass the entrance tests on his own after all’, Kimura thought Although he had broken the rules by letting Aiba know about the recruitment drive, Kimura was certain that the series of merciless test would weed out the bandwagons from those who were true of heart.
'Recruitment drive?' Aiba’s eyes widened in excitement as he thought back on the words of his respected senpai. 'I must make sure I get recruited!’
[Previous Chapter] [Next Chapter]