Shin2 Dan: Chapter 4
It was already lunch time and Kamiki was extremely thankful that Fukuda had quickly left the classroom with her bag as soon as the school bell rang. As he took out his bentou, he noticed that Shida Mirai is already standing next to his desk.
“Let’s continue the tour!” Shida excitedly exclaimed.
“No,” behind her, Yamada stood up and walk toward Kamiki’s desk, “He’s coming with me now. The tour can be later.” Yamada pulled the confused Kamiki with his bentou along out of the classroom before neither Shida nor Kamiki can protest. As they round the corner of the hallway, Yamada lets go of Kamiki’s hand and signal for him to follow. Nodding nervously, Kamiki joins Yamada’s step.
They walk pass the teacher lounge, and then pass the library, into a silent hallway. As they turn the corner, a small staircase appears in which Yamada quickly walk down. The staircase leads them down to a smaller hallway, with various pipes near the ceiling. Kamiki take a look around, noticing that compared to the rest of the school, the wall here had already started to grey. There are no windows, and the only lights are the flickering fluorescent light bulbs on the ceiling. The ground is full of brown tiles, where some of the corners are breaking off. The noisy buzzing and clanking sound from the pipes gave Kamiki a chill as he walk. He quickens his step to catch up with Yamada. At the end of the hallway was a door. Yamada open the door slowly showing a wooden staircase leading upward. The light from the top of the stair looks bright and welcoming, causing Kamiki happily quicken his pace. To him, anything is better than staying in this cold and dark hallway.
Yamada was already at the top and he waves to the person who was already there. Seeing this, Kamiki took his last step and turns to the person Yamada was waving to with a big smile. The smile is half full of relief and the other half for politeness. But seeing the person that was staring back at him transforms his big smile instantly into a frown. Sitting on the table, with a small netbook in front of her and quietly sipping tea was no one else except the person he dreaded the most, Fukuda Mayuko. At once, he wishes he was back at the dark hallway again.
“What took you so long?” Fukuda continues to sip her tea as she stares at Kamiki.
“Just showing him around from the back.” Yamada replies with a smirk.
“Oh…” Fukuda nodded knowingly. Turning back to the screen she said, “The boss is sending us a web call.”
Yamada instantly walks to Fukuda’s side and stare at the screen.
“Uh, about this morning…” Kamiki called out nervously, only to be shushed by Fukuda. Not knowing what else to do, he joins the two and stares at the small screen. There was nothing on the screen really, except a message box with a rectangle containing moving pictures of them, and a black rectangle with a green line across it. Kamiki could tell that they are having a live video chat with the recipient.
“Well, now that everyone is here, I think we can start the meeting.” The male voice from the netbook rang out as the green line started to wiggles, causing Kamiki to jump.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Yamada asked, not hiding his annoyed tone, “Why are we inviting the new kid to our secret base?”
“Well, to tell you the truth,” the voice pause, “I want him to join you guys.”
Stunned with his words, both Fukuda and Yamada were silent with their eyes wide in confusion.
“Uh, join what?” Kamiki asked innocently as he stares at the green line.
“WHAT?!” instantly, Yamada and Fukuda yell in unison before the voice can answer Kamiki’s question.
“I think we are perfectly fine with the two of us!” Yamada protested, “Plus he almost ruins the mission today. It’s a good thing that we have a backup plan, or else, I wouldn’t know what would happen.”
“But Yamada-kun,” voice said before Yamada could continue to complain, “If you had noticed Kamiki-kun was following you from the start, things wouldn’t have to turn out that bad. Plus in the end everything work out fine right?”
“But...”
“No buts!” The voice continued, “Kamiki-kun will be joining the team, and that’s that. Who know, you might see that he will become useful in the future.”
Kamiki turns to look at the two, Fukuda is still silent, while Yamada is grumbling, but didn’t say anything else.
“But sir,” Kamiki not sure how to ask, “What is exactly is this… team?”
“Fukuda-kun and Yamada-kun will fill in the details.” The voice answer, “Before I leave, Yamada-kun and Fukuda-kun, please write a quick report about the mission today. And Fukuda-kun, did you get the item?”
“Yes,” Fukuda quietly said, “I already send them to him.”
“Good.” The voice gave a small laugh, “Well, signing off. If there are any other missions, I will contact you via text message. There is a new package for Kamiki-kun on the table. Please take care of it.” With that the green line straightens and dim. Fukuda slowly turn off the message window. Yamada walked to the sofa and sits down. Fukuda then stand up and walks toward a desk, containing a small box. She lifts up the box and handed it to Kamiki. Not sure what to do, Kamiki only stares at the box.
“Open it!” Fukuda instructs him, in which he complied. Slowly, he opens the package to reveals a light blue keitai.
“Oh!” Fukuda’s eyes shine as she exclaimed, “This is the summer 2009 model, DoCoMo series SH-05A. That’s not right! You got a new keitai. Let me borrow it for a bit!” Before Kamiki could say anything else, Fukuda snatch the keitai away from his hand and take a seat in front of her netbook.
Stunned at the sudden change of attitude of the girl, Kamiki turns his head with questioning eyes to Yamada. Noticing his gaze, Yamada heave a sighs. He stood up and walk toward Kamiki.
“Don’t worry about her.” Yamada said nodding to Fukuda’s direction, “I guess we should start. I suggest you take a seat.”
Taking the offer from Yamada, Kamiki quickly sits down facing the girl who is now playing with the new keitai like a new toy that she want to take apart. Taking a seat in between to them, Yamada turns to Kamiki with a serious expression.
“I guess it can’t be helped.” Yamada begins, “From now on you’ll become our gopher!”
“Gopher?” Stunned, Kamiki stares at Yamada, “But I thought I’m supposed to be part of the team.”
“Ha!” Yamada scoffed, “Becoming part of our team is a bit too early Kamiki-kun. You still haven’t passed the training period. Starting tomorrow, beside from being our servant boy, we will begin with your training.” Looking at his watch, Yamada added, “Please be wake up and be ready by 4 o’clock tomorrow morning. Understand?”
“Uh, yes…” Kamiki said despites not comprehended anything that he just heard. Slowly, he raises his hand, not sure how to phrases his question, “Uh, Yamada-san. What exactly is…. this?”
“We are a secret organization of Shinrichi high school.” Acknowledging Kamiki’s question, Yamada nodded, “We worked in secret, alongside with the school’s student president to assure of the school safety and prevention of crimes.”
“Crimes?” Kamiki exclaimed, shocked by the revelation. Suddenly, he did not think school was such a safe place anymore.
“Don’t worry about it.” Yamada smirked, “Crimes are just simple things like thefts, bullying, blackmailing, etc… Nothing too extravagant.”
Seeing Kamiki heaving a sigh of relief, Yamada continues, “Like I’d said before, we are working alongside the student president, thus there are very few people who knows that this place exists. In fact, for many years, the student presidents all stem from the same place. Which means, unless we don’t want to, one of the two of us will become the next president of the school after the current president graduates. In laymen term, just think of us as ninja from the Edo period, working in the dark in order to secure the peace of the school.”
“Oh~!” Kamiki was impressed. This organization is starting to sound cooler than he’d imagine. Kind of like one of those underground police detective type of shows he likes to watch on TV.
“Here!” Fukuda hands him back the blue keitai, “Nice but nothing too different from ours.” She holds up her own white one and smile.
“I just added a tracking device to Sorachin.” Fukuda said as she flipped open her own keitai.
“Sorachin?” Kamiki asked.
“It’s his new name!” Fukuda smile excitedly, “Cute right? It’s blue like the sky!”
“Mamayu have a very unique way of naming things.” Yamada explains, “Don’t mind her. Please continue!”
“Anyways,” Fukuda’s face turns back to serious, “With the tracking device, we will be able to know your exact locations. I’d also add a few programs to your keitai as well, thus you will be able to track us whenever you turn it on. Because this keitai is mission related, I also input 5 levels of securities into Sorachin, just in case you accidentally drop it. In this case, if someone were to pick Sorachin up, they will only see a normal keitai. Unless they begins to access the inside files relating to our missions, they will need to input the correct passwords. The passwords will be the name of all our keitais, in romanji. Yours is Sorachin. Mine is Yukitan. And…”
“Mine is Kuroko,” Yamada embarrassingly cough as he holds up his own black color one.
“With these 3 passwords,” Fukuda continues, “You will be able to see the most basics files of our missions, such as whether it was theft or bullying. The last 2 passwords will allows you to see more details, such as who files the complaints, the victims, and the possible suspects. The even more private and secret files will not be store on your keitai. They will be locates somewhere else.”
“And the two passwords are?” Kamiki asked.
“Well, like I’d said,” Yamada begins, “You haven’t passed our training yet. Who know if you are already working for somebody else, or if you quit halfway. When you gain our trusts then you will instantly know the last 2 passwords.”
“Likewise,” Fukuda turns to looks at Kamiki, “Until you gain our trusts, you will then know where the past files for the missions are located.”
“The missions and its objectives will be sent via text messages.” Yamada said, “Depending on the situations, we will try to utilize our talents in order to complete it in the shortest period of time. Some missions will need a few days, and others just a few hours. So don’t be too surprised if we didn’t finish things in a day. But the maximum number of time we need to act is a week. Some mission will require over a week of planning and taking action, but in the past, we tried to finish them within a week period. There are times when we have more missions at once. Then we will each divided our works or joining with each other to complete the missions at the same time. It’s just depending on the situation.”
“I see…” Kamiki nodded, “So what happened this morning was also…”
“Yes!” Reminded of the event during the break, Yamada’s face darken, “I was not bullying that kid! He contains a flash drive with a very secret file from the school. If it leaked out, I don’t know what will happen to the current school system.”
“I’m sorry…” Noticing his mistakes, Kamiki lowers his head, “But… Now that he knows what you look like, wouldn’t he…?”
“He probably would.” Fukuda smirks, “But not anymore. If he announced it to a second ear, not only will he be kicked out of school, he will also….” Fukuda broke off her sentences with a smile that creep Kamiki out.
“Fukuda is our intelligent.” Yamada whispered to Kamiki, “One of her specialty is blackmail. I suggest you not mess with her.”
Kamiki nervously nodded.
“You too!” Fukuda pointed to Kamiki, “If you let any info about this organization or us out to anyone, you will face the consequences.”
“I won’t!” Kamiki shakes his head, wide eyes.
“Outside of this room, and unless for the mission,” Yamada calmly stated, “We acts as if we are total strangers. I suggest you do the same.”
“Well, it’s okay isn’t it?” Fukuda shrug, “He’s a new student, so nobody will suspects anything if he suddenly acts friendly with one of us. Besides, it would be easier for you to train him.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right.” Yamada thinks for a minutes before he continues, “During the period of the missions, we will always meet here for lunch. But when there are no missions, you can wander the school as you please. I will be here most of the time.”
“And I will always be here, regardless whether there are missions or not.” Fukuda added, “But for the first month, you will have to come here every day.” Fukuda and Yamada exchanged satisfied glances with each other.
“That is all.” Yamada stands up, “For today, you can go and do whatever you want.” Fukuda takes out her bentou from her school bag while Yamada took out his. They sat at the table and begin their lunch.
Kamiki stares at the two in silent, his head swirling with the recent information that was feed to him, too full with thoughts to eat. Not sure what else to do, Kamiki excuses himself. He stood up and head toward the staircase.
“Uh...” Fukuda started to call to him, but was silent by Yamada's eyes.
“What is it?” Kamiki asked.
“Nothing!” Yamada smiles and waves at him “See you in class.”
Nodding, Kamiki turns and walk down the staircase. After the sound of the door clicked shut, Fukuda turns to Yamada with accusing eyes.
“Why did you make him go that way?” She asked.
“It's revenge for this morning.” Yamada casually replies as he stuffed an octopus wiener into his mouth.
“You know that way is much longer and more confusing.” Fukuda protests, “He's a new student after all.”
“I showed him how to get here,” Yamada begins, “He should easily know the way back to the classroom. Plus, you gave him the keitai with the GPS in it, it should be no problem.”
“Yamada-kun,” Fukuda sighs, “Despites looking like gentleman, you are actually quite the child.”
“You too!” Yamada glance in Fukuda's direction, “The images you put in front of everyone and how you are here are totally different.” Taking a look at his watch, Yamada turns to Fukuda, “Well I'm off.”
Yamada walks toward the sliding door, but before he took a step outside, he turns to Fukuda with a reassuring smile, “Don't worry about it, and just think of it as a test for him before he officially join us.” With a casual wave, he slides the door close and walks off.
---------------------
Author's Note: A long chapter explaining things.
“Let’s continue the tour!” Shida excitedly exclaimed.
“No,” behind her, Yamada stood up and walk toward Kamiki’s desk, “He’s coming with me now. The tour can be later.” Yamada pulled the confused Kamiki with his bentou along out of the classroom before neither Shida nor Kamiki can protest. As they round the corner of the hallway, Yamada lets go of Kamiki’s hand and signal for him to follow. Nodding nervously, Kamiki joins Yamada’s step.
They walk pass the teacher lounge, and then pass the library, into a silent hallway. As they turn the corner, a small staircase appears in which Yamada quickly walk down. The staircase leads them down to a smaller hallway, with various pipes near the ceiling. Kamiki take a look around, noticing that compared to the rest of the school, the wall here had already started to grey. There are no windows, and the only lights are the flickering fluorescent light bulbs on the ceiling. The ground is full of brown tiles, where some of the corners are breaking off. The noisy buzzing and clanking sound from the pipes gave Kamiki a chill as he walk. He quickens his step to catch up with Yamada. At the end of the hallway was a door. Yamada open the door slowly showing a wooden staircase leading upward. The light from the top of the stair looks bright and welcoming, causing Kamiki happily quicken his pace. To him, anything is better than staying in this cold and dark hallway.
Yamada was already at the top and he waves to the person who was already there. Seeing this, Kamiki took his last step and turns to the person Yamada was waving to with a big smile. The smile is half full of relief and the other half for politeness. But seeing the person that was staring back at him transforms his big smile instantly into a frown. Sitting on the table, with a small netbook in front of her and quietly sipping tea was no one else except the person he dreaded the most, Fukuda Mayuko. At once, he wishes he was back at the dark hallway again.
“What took you so long?” Fukuda continues to sip her tea as she stares at Kamiki.
“Just showing him around from the back.” Yamada replies with a smirk.
“Oh…” Fukuda nodded knowingly. Turning back to the screen she said, “The boss is sending us a web call.”
Yamada instantly walks to Fukuda’s side and stare at the screen.
“Uh, about this morning…” Kamiki called out nervously, only to be shushed by Fukuda. Not knowing what else to do, he joins the two and stares at the small screen. There was nothing on the screen really, except a message box with a rectangle containing moving pictures of them, and a black rectangle with a green line across it. Kamiki could tell that they are having a live video chat with the recipient.
“Well, now that everyone is here, I think we can start the meeting.” The male voice from the netbook rang out as the green line started to wiggles, causing Kamiki to jump.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Yamada asked, not hiding his annoyed tone, “Why are we inviting the new kid to our secret base?”
“Well, to tell you the truth,” the voice pause, “I want him to join you guys.”
Stunned with his words, both Fukuda and Yamada were silent with their eyes wide in confusion.
“Uh, join what?” Kamiki asked innocently as he stares at the green line.
“WHAT?!” instantly, Yamada and Fukuda yell in unison before the voice can answer Kamiki’s question.
“I think we are perfectly fine with the two of us!” Yamada protested, “Plus he almost ruins the mission today. It’s a good thing that we have a backup plan, or else, I wouldn’t know what would happen.”
“But Yamada-kun,” voice said before Yamada could continue to complain, “If you had noticed Kamiki-kun was following you from the start, things wouldn’t have to turn out that bad. Plus in the end everything work out fine right?”
“But...”
“No buts!” The voice continued, “Kamiki-kun will be joining the team, and that’s that. Who know, you might see that he will become useful in the future.”
Kamiki turns to look at the two, Fukuda is still silent, while Yamada is grumbling, but didn’t say anything else.
“But sir,” Kamiki not sure how to ask, “What is exactly is this… team?”
“Fukuda-kun and Yamada-kun will fill in the details.” The voice answer, “Before I leave, Yamada-kun and Fukuda-kun, please write a quick report about the mission today. And Fukuda-kun, did you get the item?”
“Yes,” Fukuda quietly said, “I already send them to him.”
“Good.” The voice gave a small laugh, “Well, signing off. If there are any other missions, I will contact you via text message. There is a new package for Kamiki-kun on the table. Please take care of it.” With that the green line straightens and dim. Fukuda slowly turn off the message window. Yamada walked to the sofa and sits down. Fukuda then stand up and walks toward a desk, containing a small box. She lifts up the box and handed it to Kamiki. Not sure what to do, Kamiki only stares at the box.
“Open it!” Fukuda instructs him, in which he complied. Slowly, he opens the package to reveals a light blue keitai.
“Oh!” Fukuda’s eyes shine as she exclaimed, “This is the summer 2009 model, DoCoMo series SH-05A. That’s not right! You got a new keitai. Let me borrow it for a bit!” Before Kamiki could say anything else, Fukuda snatch the keitai away from his hand and take a seat in front of her netbook.
Stunned at the sudden change of attitude of the girl, Kamiki turns his head with questioning eyes to Yamada. Noticing his gaze, Yamada heave a sighs. He stood up and walk toward Kamiki.
“Don’t worry about her.” Yamada said nodding to Fukuda’s direction, “I guess we should start. I suggest you take a seat.”
Taking the offer from Yamada, Kamiki quickly sits down facing the girl who is now playing with the new keitai like a new toy that she want to take apart. Taking a seat in between to them, Yamada turns to Kamiki with a serious expression.
“I guess it can’t be helped.” Yamada begins, “From now on you’ll become our gopher!”
“Gopher?” Stunned, Kamiki stares at Yamada, “But I thought I’m supposed to be part of the team.”
“Ha!” Yamada scoffed, “Becoming part of our team is a bit too early Kamiki-kun. You still haven’t passed the training period. Starting tomorrow, beside from being our servant boy, we will begin with your training.” Looking at his watch, Yamada added, “Please be wake up and be ready by 4 o’clock tomorrow morning. Understand?”
“Uh, yes…” Kamiki said despites not comprehended anything that he just heard. Slowly, he raises his hand, not sure how to phrases his question, “Uh, Yamada-san. What exactly is…. this?”
“We are a secret organization of Shinrichi high school.” Acknowledging Kamiki’s question, Yamada nodded, “We worked in secret, alongside with the school’s student president to assure of the school safety and prevention of crimes.”
“Crimes?” Kamiki exclaimed, shocked by the revelation. Suddenly, he did not think school was such a safe place anymore.
“Don’t worry about it.” Yamada smirked, “Crimes are just simple things like thefts, bullying, blackmailing, etc… Nothing too extravagant.”
Seeing Kamiki heaving a sigh of relief, Yamada continues, “Like I’d said before, we are working alongside the student president, thus there are very few people who knows that this place exists. In fact, for many years, the student presidents all stem from the same place. Which means, unless we don’t want to, one of the two of us will become the next president of the school after the current president graduates. In laymen term, just think of us as ninja from the Edo period, working in the dark in order to secure the peace of the school.”
“Oh~!” Kamiki was impressed. This organization is starting to sound cooler than he’d imagine. Kind of like one of those underground police detective type of shows he likes to watch on TV.
“Here!” Fukuda hands him back the blue keitai, “Nice but nothing too different from ours.” She holds up her own white one and smile.
“I just added a tracking device to Sorachin.” Fukuda said as she flipped open her own keitai.
“Sorachin?” Kamiki asked.
“It’s his new name!” Fukuda smile excitedly, “Cute right? It’s blue like the sky!”
“Mamayu have a very unique way of naming things.” Yamada explains, “Don’t mind her. Please continue!”
“Anyways,” Fukuda’s face turns back to serious, “With the tracking device, we will be able to know your exact locations. I’d also add a few programs to your keitai as well, thus you will be able to track us whenever you turn it on. Because this keitai is mission related, I also input 5 levels of securities into Sorachin, just in case you accidentally drop it. In this case, if someone were to pick Sorachin up, they will only see a normal keitai. Unless they begins to access the inside files relating to our missions, they will need to input the correct passwords. The passwords will be the name of all our keitais, in romanji. Yours is Sorachin. Mine is Yukitan. And…”
“Mine is Kuroko,” Yamada embarrassingly cough as he holds up his own black color one.
“With these 3 passwords,” Fukuda continues, “You will be able to see the most basics files of our missions, such as whether it was theft or bullying. The last 2 passwords will allows you to see more details, such as who files the complaints, the victims, and the possible suspects. The even more private and secret files will not be store on your keitai. They will be locates somewhere else.”
“And the two passwords are?” Kamiki asked.
“Well, like I’d said,” Yamada begins, “You haven’t passed our training yet. Who know if you are already working for somebody else, or if you quit halfway. When you gain our trusts then you will instantly know the last 2 passwords.”
“Likewise,” Fukuda turns to looks at Kamiki, “Until you gain our trusts, you will then know where the past files for the missions are located.”
“The missions and its objectives will be sent via text messages.” Yamada said, “Depending on the situations, we will try to utilize our talents in order to complete it in the shortest period of time. Some missions will need a few days, and others just a few hours. So don’t be too surprised if we didn’t finish things in a day. But the maximum number of time we need to act is a week. Some mission will require over a week of planning and taking action, but in the past, we tried to finish them within a week period. There are times when we have more missions at once. Then we will each divided our works or joining with each other to complete the missions at the same time. It’s just depending on the situation.”
“I see…” Kamiki nodded, “So what happened this morning was also…”
“Yes!” Reminded of the event during the break, Yamada’s face darken, “I was not bullying that kid! He contains a flash drive with a very secret file from the school. If it leaked out, I don’t know what will happen to the current school system.”
“I’m sorry…” Noticing his mistakes, Kamiki lowers his head, “But… Now that he knows what you look like, wouldn’t he…?”
“He probably would.” Fukuda smirks, “But not anymore. If he announced it to a second ear, not only will he be kicked out of school, he will also….” Fukuda broke off her sentences with a smile that creep Kamiki out.
“Fukuda is our intelligent.” Yamada whispered to Kamiki, “One of her specialty is blackmail. I suggest you not mess with her.”
Kamiki nervously nodded.
“You too!” Fukuda pointed to Kamiki, “If you let any info about this organization or us out to anyone, you will face the consequences.”
“I won’t!” Kamiki shakes his head, wide eyes.
“Outside of this room, and unless for the mission,” Yamada calmly stated, “We acts as if we are total strangers. I suggest you do the same.”
“Well, it’s okay isn’t it?” Fukuda shrug, “He’s a new student, so nobody will suspects anything if he suddenly acts friendly with one of us. Besides, it would be easier for you to train him.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right.” Yamada thinks for a minutes before he continues, “During the period of the missions, we will always meet here for lunch. But when there are no missions, you can wander the school as you please. I will be here most of the time.”
“And I will always be here, regardless whether there are missions or not.” Fukuda added, “But for the first month, you will have to come here every day.” Fukuda and Yamada exchanged satisfied glances with each other.
“That is all.” Yamada stands up, “For today, you can go and do whatever you want.” Fukuda takes out her bentou from her school bag while Yamada took out his. They sat at the table and begin their lunch.
Kamiki stares at the two in silent, his head swirling with the recent information that was feed to him, too full with thoughts to eat. Not sure what else to do, Kamiki excuses himself. He stood up and head toward the staircase.
“Uh...” Fukuda started to call to him, but was silent by Yamada's eyes.
“What is it?” Kamiki asked.
“Nothing!” Yamada smiles and waves at him “See you in class.”
Nodding, Kamiki turns and walk down the staircase. After the sound of the door clicked shut, Fukuda turns to Yamada with accusing eyes.
“Why did you make him go that way?” She asked.
“It's revenge for this morning.” Yamada casually replies as he stuffed an octopus wiener into his mouth.
“You know that way is much longer and more confusing.” Fukuda protests, “He's a new student after all.”
“I showed him how to get here,” Yamada begins, “He should easily know the way back to the classroom. Plus, you gave him the keitai with the GPS in it, it should be no problem.”
“Yamada-kun,” Fukuda sighs, “Despites looking like gentleman, you are actually quite the child.”
“You too!” Yamada glance in Fukuda's direction, “The images you put in front of everyone and how you are here are totally different.” Taking a look at his watch, Yamada turns to Fukuda, “Well I'm off.”
Yamada walks toward the sliding door, but before he took a step outside, he turns to Fukuda with a reassuring smile, “Don't worry about it, and just think of it as a test for him before he officially join us.” With a casual wave, he slides the door close and walks off.
---------------------
Author's Note: A long chapter explaining things.