Re: KS 2- Rise of Kenji - The Fanfiction
Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:19 pm
Chapter 2 in it's entirety now up on fanfiction.net, link in the first post
Chapter 2- Assembly (Part 2)
Mr. Nakai and Mutou sit either side of a pensioner with a hacking cough in one of the hospital waiting areas, one not wanting to make conversation, the other not daring. They had been there for a good half hour and had on a couple of occasions in that time had fleetingly seen Nurse striding through double doors in animated conversation with staff and generally giving the impression something was getting done. Now finally Nurse came back the door behind the receptionist holding a clipboard and wearing a cheerful expression. Both seated men rose to their feet in expectation.
“I've got good news Mr. Nakai, there has been an admin error after all. Hisao was put in an ambulance to be transferred, but the ambulance only got 2 minutes down the road when someone realized he wasn't a 35 year old heavily pregnant woman. Typing error apparently. Anyway, he got brought back, wires got crossed, you were called up, whole big crazy mess.” Nurse bowed deeply. “I would like to humbly apologise on behalf of Yamaku Academy and the hospital for any distress this has caused you and your wife”.
Mr. Nakai sat back down with his hands on his knees and gave a long breath out. “Well, no harm done I suppose, I hope someone gets a kick up the backside for though. Neither of us needed this on top of everything else.”
Nurse gave one of his best reassuring smiles “They’ll get several. I’ll make sure of it personally.”
“So, can I go see him then?”
Nurse consulted his notes “I…I’m afraid not. He’s gone into surgery you see. It’s some exploratory work regarding his heart. His other injuries will heal in time but as you can imagine this will have piled on a lot of extra risk in terms of his arrhythmia. They need to find out whether a pacemaker or even a transplant is necessary. It’s both a short and long term thing you see.”
“I understand.”
“So, in that case Mr. Nakai” said the Nurse putting a friendly arm around his shoulders and leading him to the front doors of the hospital “your prescription is to go home, get some rest, look after your wife and wait for me or the hospital to call you once Hisao is back on the ward.”
As if by the power of suggestion alone Mr. Nakai rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times.
“Do you need a lift back or are you OK to drive?”
“No, I’ll be fine. That rancid vending machine coffee will keep me going until I get home. Thanks for sorting this out.” Mr. Nakai thought for a moment and looked past the Nurse and raised a hand sheepishly. “And…um…Mutou? Sorry about earlier I…”
Mutou waved away any apologies “Forgotten already. Perfectly understandable. Have a good journey back.”
As the two men waved to a considerably more relaxed looking Mr. Nakai as he got into his car, Mutou muttered through the corner of his mouth “So where is he then?”
Nurse kept smiling and waving “Not a goddamn clue. But there is something you need to see.”
“Anything good?”
“What do you think?”
Mutou grimaced “I think you need to swipe me some paracetamol first chance you get.”
“No problem. Now follow me.”
The Nurse took them back through the door he had originally entered into the reception area, through an area bustling with administration staff, across a section filled from floor to ceiling with hard copies of patient files and finally knocked on a locked door labeled “Security. Authorised Personnel Only”.
A face briefly appeared at the small glass window, nodded in recognition and let them in. Nurse gave a small bow and explained that Mutou was a colleague of his and that we was sorry that he didn't have the right ID badge and so forth. They were both led into a scruffy-looking room with CCTV monitors providing coverage of the more public areas both inside and outside the hospital. People in wheelchairs were being pushed in, people eating in the canteen and so on. Mutou spotted a view one of the side entrances seemed to be populated by 2 sickly-looking patients in hospital gowns inexplicably smoking.
“OK, pull up again what you showed me earlier.” said Nurse as the security guard clicked a few keys on a computer with a monitor away from the main bank of screen for the purpose of reviewing specific footage and started to scan through footage which the time-code on the screen revealed to be from around 4.45 that morning. After about thirty seconds Nurse pointed at the screen.
“And there he goes.”
Mutou looked at the footage in astonishment. “What the…? Someone just wheeled him out?” How in the hell…”
“An email came in about a half hour beforehand saying he was getting transferred to a specialist private hospital. Email was from a leading Surgeon in the field. All the right protocols, everything checked out apparently. Then, as you can see, a paramedic came in, handed over the right paperwork and just trundled him out under everyone’s noses.”
“So have we got anything to go on?”
“Well the ambulance had false plates, no-one ID’d the driver and you can’t see them on the outside cameras, the specialist that was supposed to have sent the email obviously hadn't done anything of the sort. The IT guys say there’s no way of knowing where that email came from short of handing it over to the security services.”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“So what have we got is this. Back a few minutes if you would.”
The security guard made a couple of mouse-clicks and the footage jumped to the same shot of the main hospital reception where someone in a high-visibility jumpsuit was chatting away with the receptionist for a minute or so, until he acknowledges someone off-screen and disappears into the hospital proper.
“There. Freeze it.”
“Oh hell.”
“Exactly. He seemed to know where the cameras were for the most part. Very good at hiding his face without looking too much like he was, if you catch my drift, but as you can see he slipped up.”
Mutou looked at the digitized bespectacled face looking back at him confirmed his worst fears. That Subject 117, the one that the Foundation charmingly referred to as “The Anomaly” was loose in the field.
“OK, thanks for that” said Nurse and indicated to Mutou that any further conversation was for their ears only. They returned in silence to Nurse’s car whereupon they carried on where they left off.
“Of course we could have spoken to various staff who saw him but with this we definitively know who we’re dealing with and more importantly we know he’s got help. He’s got contacts. He’s backed up with resources. This opens a very big can of very big worms. But at least we know something of the extent of the help he has to try and something this audacious.”
“Too right. So what now?”
“Well I get back to the school and carry on like nothing’s happened. For now at least. Anyone asked we got a call from the hospital and Hisao is improving.” Nurse patted Mutou on the shoulder “Meanwhile you have to get back to the school and let the Foundation about the kidnapping of one of their newest acquisitions and the danger caused by the involvement of one of its most unstable assets.”
As he slumped in the passenger seat, Mutou’s headache worsened exponentially.
…
Hisao didn't wake with a start this time. As the drugs lessened their grip on his consciousness, he drifted gently back into wakefulness. He could see an intense flicker of something like a strobe light reflecting off the ceiling from someone nearby. Hisao studied them for a while thinking there might be a pattern but it all seemed random. Eventually the recollection of where he was slammed into his brain like a runaway train.
“Kenji? KENJI! Where the hell are you? For god’s sake get me out of this thing. What are you – AGH!”
The curious light stopped and Hisao yelped as a strange apparition loomed into view, a large metal welding mask with two beady eyes looking through a small blue-tinted glass pane.
“AGH! What? Oh sorry man, forgot I had this thing on. Give me a sec.”
As Kenji disappeared off to remove the mask, Hisao shouted “Not to stress this too much, but you owe me a LOT of answers.” He had to keep reminding himself, despite this insanity he had been dragged into, to not go in all guns blazing at Kenji. He had been on the receiving end of how just how many degrees Kenji was askew from reality back at the school so and Hisao, despite everything, had the presence of mind to know if someone that unpredictable and possibly deranged had you in such a vulnerable position as he was now in, it was best not to rile them up to much. Plus getting some dialogue going might stop anyone doing anything….drastic.
“OK dude” said Kenji returning. Hisao noticed he was still wearing his school uniform as he pushed a tatty looking chair over and sat down by Hisao’s feet so that by pushing his chin into his chest, Hisao could just about get a clear view. “No more secrets. Ask away.”
“First, can’t you get me out of…whatever this thing is?”
“No can do mi amigo. Can’t have you moving about and messing yourself up even worse. I knew you’d lose it a bit when you woke up so keeping you like this was the only way.”
OK. That’s a start thought Hisao. I’m not here under duress as such. Assuming he’s telling the truth. And who knew with Kenji what the truth was to him.
Kenji stood up “Is this going to take long man? I've got…” He glanced to his left anxiously “…a schedule to keep.”
“A what? OK, look you’re going to have to start from the start here. How am I not in a hospital? Or dead for that matter?”
“Second answer first. You bounced.”
“I bounced.”
“Yup. Hit something on the way down, took some of the momentum away. If you hadn't have done that they would have been taking you away in a bucket. You’re damned lucky either way. I thought you were toast for sure.”
Hisao let his head sink back down as he contemplated the fact he’d cheated the grim reaper for the second time in a year. After a moment, he turned back to Kenji “OK, then what?”
“Then there was people shouting and running and then people calling an ambulance and then one arrived to take you away.”
“And where were you while that was going on?”
“Making myself scarce. Couldn't have people jumping to the wrong conclusions. Couldn't have these people meddling in my affairs. Especially not those nurses.”
“In your aff…? Dammit Kenji I could have been dead for all you knew!”
“But you’re not. You are pretty banged up though. I read your paperwork. Couple of nasty breaks. They had you in a neck brace when I came to get you. Just as a precaution though. Standard procedure.”
Hisao was pretty sure at this point, if had his arms free, he’d be pinching the bridge of his nose right now.
“Why in heavens name did you take me out of there? Wait a minute, HOW did you get me out of there?”
“Second one first again man. I had help. And that’s all your going to get for now. Sorry.”
“So don’t I get the why then?”
A previously stone-faced Kenji leapt to his feet, clapping his hands together making Hisao jump.
“NOW we are getting to the good stuff! You’ll like this dude, give me a sec.”
Kenji disappeared downwards out of Hisao’s vision and seemed to be tinkering with some mechanism underneath him.
Suddenly Hisao’s limited view changed as whether he was lying on was swung around and from the horizontal to the vertical. As he was swiveled around he caught sight of various tools and electronic equipment as well as several computer monitors glowing away in the gloom of… the word that came straight to the forefront of Hisao’s mind was ‘workshop’.
“What is this place? Where did you get all this stuff?”
Kenji kicked a couple of metal bars into place and began to push Hisao along like a warehouse worker moving stock.“The same people that helped me get you here. Best to just call them my benefactors. They contacted me months ago and had heard about my struggle.”
“Your struggle? Wait, the “battle against the feminists” thing? Are you serious?”
To Hisao everything pitched forward and the metal bars at his feet clanged to the floor. He panicked for a second as he thought he and it were going to overbalance to finish what a fall from the school roof had started. Kenji charged into view face full of fury, wagging a finger in Hisao’s face.
“DEADLY serious! This isn't ‘a thing’! It’s THE thing. This is a game-changer! This is the final coming together of 2 years of work! Word had got around to the right people man! I started getting these emails. At first I thought it might have been feminist double-agents trying to lure me out into the open but we sent stuff back and forth. They sent me some documents about what they had planned. Too good to miss man, too good to miss.”
Hisao looked at Kenji closely, had the sleep deprivation finally got to him? Was this the final stage of his slowly building psychosis? Had he explained all this a few days ago he would have said that the what little boundaries between fantasy and reality had finally crumbled for him, but after what had happened in the last day or so? After winding up in this strange workshop of his? Right now Hisao didn't know what to think.
“I knew you’d have some doubt even after all I’d told you last week, so that’s why I thought I’d show you this straight away.”
Kenji unhitched the apparatus from it’s fixed position and turned Hisao to a previous unseen wall of the workshop who gaped in astonishment.
It reminded him in a weird way of that old Da Vinci drawing he’d seen in a textbook once - The Vitruvian Man or something, but as re-imagined for some schlocky science fiction film. Suspended from the ceiling but only a few inches from the floor were two transparent hemispheres, about 6 feet diameter with an centre circular section between them of white plastic with a hollow section in the outline of a human but with a extra space either side of the head like some bizarre life-size cookie cutter. Hisao could see all sorts of instrumentation around the inside of the outline and it was clear all these parts fitted together to make…what? A cockpit? He wondered this was a vessel to make him the first Japanese schoolboy to be shot into space.
“Impressive isn't it?” said Kenji as he stood in front of the object spreading his arms wide, imitating the outline behind him.
“Er..yeah. You made this?”
“I had…help”
“Your ‘benefactors’?”
“Er…yeah.”
“So wait, you put this…whatever this thing is together yourself? Man alive Kenji you can’t see two feet in front of you and you mean to tell me you’re suddenly an engineer or something?”
“I don’t know what to tell you man. They showed me the blueprints and I just…kinda knew what I needed and how to put it together. I asked, they supplied. Whipped this baby up in a month or so. We've all got hidden talents after all.”
Not that hidden, thought Hisao bitterly. So much of this still didn't make any sense.
“So what is it then?”
“It’s for healing you.”
“I’m sorry what?”
Kenji pointed up and down the equipment. “It’ll monitor your vitals, direct muscle stimulation, hormone infusions, all sorts of cool stuff. That wasn't the primary function at first but it didn't take long to adapt. I put you in there and in a few days you’ll be on the track speeding past that robot-legs girl.”
Hisao didn't think anyone could blame him for being skeptical at all this, but he could hardly say he didn't want to co-operate. What was the alternative? Back to the hospital spending even more time on wards reeking of bleach but this time not being able to walk or move or do anything unaided? And what would Kenji do if he said no after revealing all this? He was unpredictable and volatile at the best of times, heaven only knows what he might do now someone from the outside knew what he had been up to. There was nothing Hisao could do to protect himself at the moment. he suspected that it was only a cocktail of drugs keeping him from being in agony. He’d play along with this charade. He didn't have much of a choice.
“OK. Looks like I’m going to be your guinea pig then. Let’s get this over with.”
“You know it makes sense man. This is just the start. When we get to Phase 2 it’ll blow your mind clean out of your nose.”
“What’s Phase 2?”
“It’s unfinished. Ultra-hush hush. Let’s just get you strapped into this first and we can work ourselves a miracle!”
Kenji began the awkward process of transferring the prone Hisao into the contraption. It seemed that the white centre section would be hauled over, Hisao would be strapped into it and then the restraints that had kept him in place up until now would be released.
“Going to have to knock you out again man, it’s just the early stages of the muscle thing is pretty painful even with what I've given you. Can’t have you screaming the place down.”
Hisao frowned as Kenji put a mask over his nose and mouth. He was getting a little fed up of the sensation of blacking out.
“Thanks for that”
“I mean I've got more work to do, you’d distract me.”
“Yeah. No worries.”
As he was trussed up in this bizarre piece of cutting-edge technology with arms and legs spread, Hisao felt like he was going to spun around and have a circus performer throw knives at him. As the Perspex cover closed over him and Kenji gave a thumbs up from the workstation into which he busy typing instructions, he could see the outline of something vaguely humanoid at the other side of the room. Vaguely because it was far too tall or wide to be an actual person. It was metallic and slouched forward slightly but Hisao could make out some thin red lights around where the face might be. As the anesthetic began to take hold Hisao lost the ability to draw any conclusion on these sights he could see Kenji step away from the computer and put on his welding mask. Once again the intense glare flickered around the workshop as he set to work. As his vision clouded, Hisao saw a familiar name spelled out, but he had no time to make anything of this as the darkness closed in around him.
…
The four girls and latterly private investigators descended the steps from the roof eager to progress with the next stage of their enquiries but knowing that school protocol would have to come first which meant back to class. While Shizune and Misha were repairing the removed temporary barriers to the roof staircase, Emi spotted Lilly and Hanako leisurely making their way along the corridor, the latter both helping to direct the former and at the same time gripping onto her for a extra sense of security. Emi bounding over to them did not go unnoticed.
[She’s going to tell them isn't she?]
[Probably.]
Shizune scowled. It was bad enough Emi couldn't keep this potentially sensitive matter to herself for 30 seconds but she goes and tells….her. Any second now Satou will be poking her nose in and doing that passive-aggressive thing she’s turned into a science.
“Misha, what’s all this about? It appears that you two have become Yamaku’s answer to Holmes and Watson.”
Misha made an uncharacteristically serious face. “It’s something the Student Council are going to handle Lilly.” Then picking up the baton of literary reference and running with it she chortled as she announced “The game is afoot! WAHAHA~!”
This got her a poke in the shoulder from Shizune followed by some emphatic signing.
“Shicchan says we will be handling this through the correct channels and hopefully some information will be passed down to put this matter to bed”
A section of Hanako peered around from behind Lilly and timidly asked “A-are you sure you should be getting involved? The Teacher said-“
“TEACHER!”
Hanako gave a small yelp as Misha suddenly exploded into life and bolted off down the corridor. “Mutou-Sensei! Hey, wait!”
The other girls saw the teacher in the distance who changed direction rather too jerkily for a man on a normal journey, he appeared to spin on his heel from walking towards them all to heading down a corridor towards the Anxillary Building which housed a lot of non-classroom facilities.
Emi was the next to give chase, Shizune reacted uncharacteristically slowly and hurried off to take the lead role in questioning the witness.
“Are we going to follow them as well?” asked Hanako of Lilly.
“I think we should, it may be good to get some information straight from the horse’s mouth as it were. You know how people gossip around here. I think we are all eager to know what Hisao’s current condition is.”
“Yes I’m worried about him too, but I really don’t like it. Students asking all these questions of teachers, doesn't feel right.”
“I know Hanako, but apart from anything else poor old Mutou might need some help if Shizune gets to him first.”
As they moved off at a steady pace with Lilly’s cane clicked along the floor, Rin stood in the middle of the corridor seemingly nonplussed by the absence of all the other girls and this new turn of events. After about a minute she shrugged to no-one in particular and trudged off in the same direction.
After a few minutes of negotiating the grounds followed by the relatively unfamiliar corridors of the Anxillary Building and all the while following Misha’s voice, Lilly and Hanako found the other girls in discussion at a t-junction of non-descript corridors. The amount of dust in the air catching the afternoon light was testament to the scarce use of this area.
“I swear Emi-chan, I saw him go down here. Ten seconds later I turn the corner and I see it’s a dead end, but no Mutou.
That’s makes no sense right?”. Misha waved an arm at the corridor which was indeed conspicuous by its absence of science teacher. No windows, no doors, just some banks of lockers and various discarded classroom furniture. Presently a chair near the end of the corridor fell over with a loud clatter making all the girls jump.
“But Misha there’s no way…I mean are you sure it was even him?”
“He’s my home room teacher, I’d know that scruffy old suit from 100 yards away.”
“This is most perplexing.” interjected Lilly after being brought up to speed “Have any of you ever been to this part of the school before? I know for certain that I haven’t.”
Shakes of the head all round. None of them seemed to have even known this part of the building was here before. The Academy wasn't the kind of place you went idly exploring, most students had more than their fill of the school during term time.
“I-I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Could be anything.” quavered Hanako, one hand over the scarred side of her face in nervousness at what for her was a grandiose speech. “We should get back, we’ll be late for classes.”
As if to make her case further, the bells for the end of lunchtime rang in the distance. With no time or leads to make any further in-roads into this mystery, the group moved off.
Except for Shizune, who stood for a little while staring angrily down the corridor as if there was a chance she could make Mutou materialize by sheer force of will. She did not like being beaten. Especially when it was not clear how she had been beaten. There was something rotten in the state of Yamaku and one way or another she was going to get to the bottom of it. She strode off to catch up with Misha and the others as they journeyed back to the main building
Elsewhere but closer than Shizune or any of the other girls could ever have suspected, Mutou watched her walk out of the camera’s field of view.
Chapter 2- Assembly (Part 2)
Mr. Nakai and Mutou sit either side of a pensioner with a hacking cough in one of the hospital waiting areas, one not wanting to make conversation, the other not daring. They had been there for a good half hour and had on a couple of occasions in that time had fleetingly seen Nurse striding through double doors in animated conversation with staff and generally giving the impression something was getting done. Now finally Nurse came back the door behind the receptionist holding a clipboard and wearing a cheerful expression. Both seated men rose to their feet in expectation.
“I've got good news Mr. Nakai, there has been an admin error after all. Hisao was put in an ambulance to be transferred, but the ambulance only got 2 minutes down the road when someone realized he wasn't a 35 year old heavily pregnant woman. Typing error apparently. Anyway, he got brought back, wires got crossed, you were called up, whole big crazy mess.” Nurse bowed deeply. “I would like to humbly apologise on behalf of Yamaku Academy and the hospital for any distress this has caused you and your wife”.
Mr. Nakai sat back down with his hands on his knees and gave a long breath out. “Well, no harm done I suppose, I hope someone gets a kick up the backside for though. Neither of us needed this on top of everything else.”
Nurse gave one of his best reassuring smiles “They’ll get several. I’ll make sure of it personally.”
“So, can I go see him then?”
Nurse consulted his notes “I…I’m afraid not. He’s gone into surgery you see. It’s some exploratory work regarding his heart. His other injuries will heal in time but as you can imagine this will have piled on a lot of extra risk in terms of his arrhythmia. They need to find out whether a pacemaker or even a transplant is necessary. It’s both a short and long term thing you see.”
“I understand.”
“So, in that case Mr. Nakai” said the Nurse putting a friendly arm around his shoulders and leading him to the front doors of the hospital “your prescription is to go home, get some rest, look after your wife and wait for me or the hospital to call you once Hisao is back on the ward.”
As if by the power of suggestion alone Mr. Nakai rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times.
“Do you need a lift back or are you OK to drive?”
“No, I’ll be fine. That rancid vending machine coffee will keep me going until I get home. Thanks for sorting this out.” Mr. Nakai thought for a moment and looked past the Nurse and raised a hand sheepishly. “And…um…Mutou? Sorry about earlier I…”
Mutou waved away any apologies “Forgotten already. Perfectly understandable. Have a good journey back.”
As the two men waved to a considerably more relaxed looking Mr. Nakai as he got into his car, Mutou muttered through the corner of his mouth “So where is he then?”
Nurse kept smiling and waving “Not a goddamn clue. But there is something you need to see.”
“Anything good?”
“What do you think?”
Mutou grimaced “I think you need to swipe me some paracetamol first chance you get.”
“No problem. Now follow me.”
The Nurse took them back through the door he had originally entered into the reception area, through an area bustling with administration staff, across a section filled from floor to ceiling with hard copies of patient files and finally knocked on a locked door labeled “Security. Authorised Personnel Only”.
A face briefly appeared at the small glass window, nodded in recognition and let them in. Nurse gave a small bow and explained that Mutou was a colleague of his and that we was sorry that he didn't have the right ID badge and so forth. They were both led into a scruffy-looking room with CCTV monitors providing coverage of the more public areas both inside and outside the hospital. People in wheelchairs were being pushed in, people eating in the canteen and so on. Mutou spotted a view one of the side entrances seemed to be populated by 2 sickly-looking patients in hospital gowns inexplicably smoking.
“OK, pull up again what you showed me earlier.” said Nurse as the security guard clicked a few keys on a computer with a monitor away from the main bank of screen for the purpose of reviewing specific footage and started to scan through footage which the time-code on the screen revealed to be from around 4.45 that morning. After about thirty seconds Nurse pointed at the screen.
“And there he goes.”
Mutou looked at the footage in astonishment. “What the…? Someone just wheeled him out?” How in the hell…”
“An email came in about a half hour beforehand saying he was getting transferred to a specialist private hospital. Email was from a leading Surgeon in the field. All the right protocols, everything checked out apparently. Then, as you can see, a paramedic came in, handed over the right paperwork and just trundled him out under everyone’s noses.”
“So have we got anything to go on?”
“Well the ambulance had false plates, no-one ID’d the driver and you can’t see them on the outside cameras, the specialist that was supposed to have sent the email obviously hadn't done anything of the sort. The IT guys say there’s no way of knowing where that email came from short of handing it over to the security services.”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“So what have we got is this. Back a few minutes if you would.”
The security guard made a couple of mouse-clicks and the footage jumped to the same shot of the main hospital reception where someone in a high-visibility jumpsuit was chatting away with the receptionist for a minute or so, until he acknowledges someone off-screen and disappears into the hospital proper.
“There. Freeze it.”
“Oh hell.”
“Exactly. He seemed to know where the cameras were for the most part. Very good at hiding his face without looking too much like he was, if you catch my drift, but as you can see he slipped up.”
Mutou looked at the digitized bespectacled face looking back at him confirmed his worst fears. That Subject 117, the one that the Foundation charmingly referred to as “The Anomaly” was loose in the field.
“OK, thanks for that” said Nurse and indicated to Mutou that any further conversation was for their ears only. They returned in silence to Nurse’s car whereupon they carried on where they left off.
“Of course we could have spoken to various staff who saw him but with this we definitively know who we’re dealing with and more importantly we know he’s got help. He’s got contacts. He’s backed up with resources. This opens a very big can of very big worms. But at least we know something of the extent of the help he has to try and something this audacious.”
“Too right. So what now?”
“Well I get back to the school and carry on like nothing’s happened. For now at least. Anyone asked we got a call from the hospital and Hisao is improving.” Nurse patted Mutou on the shoulder “Meanwhile you have to get back to the school and let the Foundation about the kidnapping of one of their newest acquisitions and the danger caused by the involvement of one of its most unstable assets.”
As he slumped in the passenger seat, Mutou’s headache worsened exponentially.
…
Hisao didn't wake with a start this time. As the drugs lessened their grip on his consciousness, he drifted gently back into wakefulness. He could see an intense flicker of something like a strobe light reflecting off the ceiling from someone nearby. Hisao studied them for a while thinking there might be a pattern but it all seemed random. Eventually the recollection of where he was slammed into his brain like a runaway train.
“Kenji? KENJI! Where the hell are you? For god’s sake get me out of this thing. What are you – AGH!”
The curious light stopped and Hisao yelped as a strange apparition loomed into view, a large metal welding mask with two beady eyes looking through a small blue-tinted glass pane.
“AGH! What? Oh sorry man, forgot I had this thing on. Give me a sec.”
As Kenji disappeared off to remove the mask, Hisao shouted “Not to stress this too much, but you owe me a LOT of answers.” He had to keep reminding himself, despite this insanity he had been dragged into, to not go in all guns blazing at Kenji. He had been on the receiving end of how just how many degrees Kenji was askew from reality back at the school so and Hisao, despite everything, had the presence of mind to know if someone that unpredictable and possibly deranged had you in such a vulnerable position as he was now in, it was best not to rile them up to much. Plus getting some dialogue going might stop anyone doing anything….drastic.
“OK dude” said Kenji returning. Hisao noticed he was still wearing his school uniform as he pushed a tatty looking chair over and sat down by Hisao’s feet so that by pushing his chin into his chest, Hisao could just about get a clear view. “No more secrets. Ask away.”
“First, can’t you get me out of…whatever this thing is?”
“No can do mi amigo. Can’t have you moving about and messing yourself up even worse. I knew you’d lose it a bit when you woke up so keeping you like this was the only way.”
OK. That’s a start thought Hisao. I’m not here under duress as such. Assuming he’s telling the truth. And who knew with Kenji what the truth was to him.
Kenji stood up “Is this going to take long man? I've got…” He glanced to his left anxiously “…a schedule to keep.”
“A what? OK, look you’re going to have to start from the start here. How am I not in a hospital? Or dead for that matter?”
“Second answer first. You bounced.”
“I bounced.”
“Yup. Hit something on the way down, took some of the momentum away. If you hadn't have done that they would have been taking you away in a bucket. You’re damned lucky either way. I thought you were toast for sure.”
Hisao let his head sink back down as he contemplated the fact he’d cheated the grim reaper for the second time in a year. After a moment, he turned back to Kenji “OK, then what?”
“Then there was people shouting and running and then people calling an ambulance and then one arrived to take you away.”
“And where were you while that was going on?”
“Making myself scarce. Couldn't have people jumping to the wrong conclusions. Couldn't have these people meddling in my affairs. Especially not those nurses.”
“In your aff…? Dammit Kenji I could have been dead for all you knew!”
“But you’re not. You are pretty banged up though. I read your paperwork. Couple of nasty breaks. They had you in a neck brace when I came to get you. Just as a precaution though. Standard procedure.”
Hisao was pretty sure at this point, if had his arms free, he’d be pinching the bridge of his nose right now.
“Why in heavens name did you take me out of there? Wait a minute, HOW did you get me out of there?”
“Second one first again man. I had help. And that’s all your going to get for now. Sorry.”
“So don’t I get the why then?”
A previously stone-faced Kenji leapt to his feet, clapping his hands together making Hisao jump.
“NOW we are getting to the good stuff! You’ll like this dude, give me a sec.”
Kenji disappeared downwards out of Hisao’s vision and seemed to be tinkering with some mechanism underneath him.
Suddenly Hisao’s limited view changed as whether he was lying on was swung around and from the horizontal to the vertical. As he was swiveled around he caught sight of various tools and electronic equipment as well as several computer monitors glowing away in the gloom of… the word that came straight to the forefront of Hisao’s mind was ‘workshop’.
“What is this place? Where did you get all this stuff?”
Kenji kicked a couple of metal bars into place and began to push Hisao along like a warehouse worker moving stock.“The same people that helped me get you here. Best to just call them my benefactors. They contacted me months ago and had heard about my struggle.”
“Your struggle? Wait, the “battle against the feminists” thing? Are you serious?”
To Hisao everything pitched forward and the metal bars at his feet clanged to the floor. He panicked for a second as he thought he and it were going to overbalance to finish what a fall from the school roof had started. Kenji charged into view face full of fury, wagging a finger in Hisao’s face.
“DEADLY serious! This isn't ‘a thing’! It’s THE thing. This is a game-changer! This is the final coming together of 2 years of work! Word had got around to the right people man! I started getting these emails. At first I thought it might have been feminist double-agents trying to lure me out into the open but we sent stuff back and forth. They sent me some documents about what they had planned. Too good to miss man, too good to miss.”
Hisao looked at Kenji closely, had the sleep deprivation finally got to him? Was this the final stage of his slowly building psychosis? Had he explained all this a few days ago he would have said that the what little boundaries between fantasy and reality had finally crumbled for him, but after what had happened in the last day or so? After winding up in this strange workshop of his? Right now Hisao didn't know what to think.
“I knew you’d have some doubt even after all I’d told you last week, so that’s why I thought I’d show you this straight away.”
Kenji unhitched the apparatus from it’s fixed position and turned Hisao to a previous unseen wall of the workshop who gaped in astonishment.
It reminded him in a weird way of that old Da Vinci drawing he’d seen in a textbook once - The Vitruvian Man or something, but as re-imagined for some schlocky science fiction film. Suspended from the ceiling but only a few inches from the floor were two transparent hemispheres, about 6 feet diameter with an centre circular section between them of white plastic with a hollow section in the outline of a human but with a extra space either side of the head like some bizarre life-size cookie cutter. Hisao could see all sorts of instrumentation around the inside of the outline and it was clear all these parts fitted together to make…what? A cockpit? He wondered this was a vessel to make him the first Japanese schoolboy to be shot into space.
“Impressive isn't it?” said Kenji as he stood in front of the object spreading his arms wide, imitating the outline behind him.
“Er..yeah. You made this?”
“I had…help”
“Your ‘benefactors’?”
“Er…yeah.”
“So wait, you put this…whatever this thing is together yourself? Man alive Kenji you can’t see two feet in front of you and you mean to tell me you’re suddenly an engineer or something?”
“I don’t know what to tell you man. They showed me the blueprints and I just…kinda knew what I needed and how to put it together. I asked, they supplied. Whipped this baby up in a month or so. We've all got hidden talents after all.”
Not that hidden, thought Hisao bitterly. So much of this still didn't make any sense.
“So what is it then?”
“It’s for healing you.”
“I’m sorry what?”
Kenji pointed up and down the equipment. “It’ll monitor your vitals, direct muscle stimulation, hormone infusions, all sorts of cool stuff. That wasn't the primary function at first but it didn't take long to adapt. I put you in there and in a few days you’ll be on the track speeding past that robot-legs girl.”
Hisao didn't think anyone could blame him for being skeptical at all this, but he could hardly say he didn't want to co-operate. What was the alternative? Back to the hospital spending even more time on wards reeking of bleach but this time not being able to walk or move or do anything unaided? And what would Kenji do if he said no after revealing all this? He was unpredictable and volatile at the best of times, heaven only knows what he might do now someone from the outside knew what he had been up to. There was nothing Hisao could do to protect himself at the moment. he suspected that it was only a cocktail of drugs keeping him from being in agony. He’d play along with this charade. He didn't have much of a choice.
“OK. Looks like I’m going to be your guinea pig then. Let’s get this over with.”
“You know it makes sense man. This is just the start. When we get to Phase 2 it’ll blow your mind clean out of your nose.”
“What’s Phase 2?”
“It’s unfinished. Ultra-hush hush. Let’s just get you strapped into this first and we can work ourselves a miracle!”
Kenji began the awkward process of transferring the prone Hisao into the contraption. It seemed that the white centre section would be hauled over, Hisao would be strapped into it and then the restraints that had kept him in place up until now would be released.
“Going to have to knock you out again man, it’s just the early stages of the muscle thing is pretty painful even with what I've given you. Can’t have you screaming the place down.”
Hisao frowned as Kenji put a mask over his nose and mouth. He was getting a little fed up of the sensation of blacking out.
“Thanks for that”
“I mean I've got more work to do, you’d distract me.”
“Yeah. No worries.”
As he was trussed up in this bizarre piece of cutting-edge technology with arms and legs spread, Hisao felt like he was going to spun around and have a circus performer throw knives at him. As the Perspex cover closed over him and Kenji gave a thumbs up from the workstation into which he busy typing instructions, he could see the outline of something vaguely humanoid at the other side of the room. Vaguely because it was far too tall or wide to be an actual person. It was metallic and slouched forward slightly but Hisao could make out some thin red lights around where the face might be. As the anesthetic began to take hold Hisao lost the ability to draw any conclusion on these sights he could see Kenji step away from the computer and put on his welding mask. Once again the intense glare flickered around the workshop as he set to work. As his vision clouded, Hisao saw a familiar name spelled out, but he had no time to make anything of this as the darkness closed in around him.
…
The four girls and latterly private investigators descended the steps from the roof eager to progress with the next stage of their enquiries but knowing that school protocol would have to come first which meant back to class. While Shizune and Misha were repairing the removed temporary barriers to the roof staircase, Emi spotted Lilly and Hanako leisurely making their way along the corridor, the latter both helping to direct the former and at the same time gripping onto her for a extra sense of security. Emi bounding over to them did not go unnoticed.
[She’s going to tell them isn't she?]
[Probably.]
Shizune scowled. It was bad enough Emi couldn't keep this potentially sensitive matter to herself for 30 seconds but she goes and tells….her. Any second now Satou will be poking her nose in and doing that passive-aggressive thing she’s turned into a science.
“Misha, what’s all this about? It appears that you two have become Yamaku’s answer to Holmes and Watson.”
Misha made an uncharacteristically serious face. “It’s something the Student Council are going to handle Lilly.” Then picking up the baton of literary reference and running with it she chortled as she announced “The game is afoot! WAHAHA~!”
This got her a poke in the shoulder from Shizune followed by some emphatic signing.
“Shicchan says we will be handling this through the correct channels and hopefully some information will be passed down to put this matter to bed”
A section of Hanako peered around from behind Lilly and timidly asked “A-are you sure you should be getting involved? The Teacher said-“
“TEACHER!”
Hanako gave a small yelp as Misha suddenly exploded into life and bolted off down the corridor. “Mutou-Sensei! Hey, wait!”
The other girls saw the teacher in the distance who changed direction rather too jerkily for a man on a normal journey, he appeared to spin on his heel from walking towards them all to heading down a corridor towards the Anxillary Building which housed a lot of non-classroom facilities.
Emi was the next to give chase, Shizune reacted uncharacteristically slowly and hurried off to take the lead role in questioning the witness.
“Are we going to follow them as well?” asked Hanako of Lilly.
“I think we should, it may be good to get some information straight from the horse’s mouth as it were. You know how people gossip around here. I think we are all eager to know what Hisao’s current condition is.”
“Yes I’m worried about him too, but I really don’t like it. Students asking all these questions of teachers, doesn't feel right.”
“I know Hanako, but apart from anything else poor old Mutou might need some help if Shizune gets to him first.”
As they moved off at a steady pace with Lilly’s cane clicked along the floor, Rin stood in the middle of the corridor seemingly nonplussed by the absence of all the other girls and this new turn of events. After about a minute she shrugged to no-one in particular and trudged off in the same direction.
After a few minutes of negotiating the grounds followed by the relatively unfamiliar corridors of the Anxillary Building and all the while following Misha’s voice, Lilly and Hanako found the other girls in discussion at a t-junction of non-descript corridors. The amount of dust in the air catching the afternoon light was testament to the scarce use of this area.
“I swear Emi-chan, I saw him go down here. Ten seconds later I turn the corner and I see it’s a dead end, but no Mutou.
That’s makes no sense right?”. Misha waved an arm at the corridor which was indeed conspicuous by its absence of science teacher. No windows, no doors, just some banks of lockers and various discarded classroom furniture. Presently a chair near the end of the corridor fell over with a loud clatter making all the girls jump.
“But Misha there’s no way…I mean are you sure it was even him?”
“He’s my home room teacher, I’d know that scruffy old suit from 100 yards away.”
“This is most perplexing.” interjected Lilly after being brought up to speed “Have any of you ever been to this part of the school before? I know for certain that I haven’t.”
Shakes of the head all round. None of them seemed to have even known this part of the building was here before. The Academy wasn't the kind of place you went idly exploring, most students had more than their fill of the school during term time.
“I-I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Could be anything.” quavered Hanako, one hand over the scarred side of her face in nervousness at what for her was a grandiose speech. “We should get back, we’ll be late for classes.”
As if to make her case further, the bells for the end of lunchtime rang in the distance. With no time or leads to make any further in-roads into this mystery, the group moved off.
Except for Shizune, who stood for a little while staring angrily down the corridor as if there was a chance she could make Mutou materialize by sheer force of will. She did not like being beaten. Especially when it was not clear how she had been beaten. There was something rotten in the state of Yamaku and one way or another she was going to get to the bottom of it. She strode off to catch up with Misha and the others as they journeyed back to the main building
Elsewhere but closer than Shizune or any of the other girls could ever have suspected, Mutou watched her walk out of the camera’s field of view.