bunnyfic 34
I'd call this half-assed if it weren't instead the most effortful, constipated thing to get out ever. 8D; Seven false starts, and about 6000 scrapped words for this chapter alone over the last month -- how does that even happen? What suck. Indecision is the mother of all lose.
And still, nothing really progresses! ♥ But midsemester break, yay~ *writewritewrite* That EDITING IS FOR THE WEAK mantra, I need a bandana of it. To tie over my eyes.
★ Now with added Miyata bit, as of Apr 16th or so. 8Db
The Boss and the Boy; K17, 21-K.
( 34: walking with WMDs )
Miyata's left leg wouldn't stop jittering. A woman -- probably the only other one not online on the transport -- was giving him dirty looks as his foot tap-tap-tapped against the MPT floor. Miyata bit his lip and gave her an apologetic smile, sheepishly slipping his netgear on. The transport wouldn't go any faster with him watching its progress after all, no matter how anxious he was for it to reach the Capital's centre already.
His default cottage was dark, no candles lit or fire burning when he entered it, and quiet too. No new mail meant no Masashi... Miyata sighed. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he'd still sort of been hoping he'd been wrong. That it'd been a mistake at best, or a joke at worst, and he'd log on and find a message from Tamamori saying Just kidding~ or maybe 「愛してるぜ」. But, no.
"...ただいま," he said anyway out of habit as he toed his shoes off. An 'I'm home' with no one to hear it.
"お帰りなさい," said a voice. Welcome back.
Miyata froze. "だれ?" he called, tentative at first but then suddenly angrier when there was no response after a few seconds: "Show yourself!"
Two figures Miyata had never seen before materialized on the couch, sitting comfortably side by side. "こんばんは宮田," said the skinny one -- the one with his eyes actually open -- grinning. Miyata narrowed his eyes. Such a casual good evening as if the language he said it in was nothing. There were others who spoke Old Local in the government, in the Capital, but they were very few and far between. Knowledge of it was the only reason Miyata had been allowed to work as inefficiently as he had, for as long as he had.
"Who are you?" Miyata asked, pointedly reverting to Global despite himself. "How do you know me?"
The skinny one gave another toothy grin. "横尾渉でございます," he said, and gestured to the second figure. "こちらは飯田恭平." Yokoo Wataru. Iida Kyohei. Miyata tried to think of having heard the names before, perhaps on lists at work, but got no mental hits. Yokoo continued: "We're also known as Y00 and I14 respectively. Perhaps you've heard of our house master? Hideaki Takizawa."
Oh, Miyata thought. Pieces of lightbulb. Then Iida was that phoenix model guy Tamamori had based the kraken off of, and -- but what were they doing here? "...Takizawa's case isn't my department," he settled on saying, trying to keep his expression slack.
"Despite the fact you've shown some unreasonable interest in us lately, according to my sources?" Yokoo said, narrowing his eyes.
Miyata swallowed. "That's..."
Abruptly, the cottage's door and chimney disappeared, its windows suddenly filled in with concrete. And Iida's avatar finally opened its eyes, gaze flickering first to Yokoo before settling on Miyata straight ahead. "Secured."
"Ahh~" Yokoo said, all the menace seeming to drain out of his posture as he reclined in the couch and grinned in a way that wasn't half as sharp as before. "About time. So, M15," he continued. "Miyata. What do you prefer to be called?"
"...Miyata?" Miyata said, bewildered. "Did you just lock out my surveillance?" The cottage walls now reminded him eerily of government virtual cells gone homely.
"Yes," Iida replied, in almost a monotone. "Modified prison scenario. Nobody can enter or leave. Moreover, nobody can see in or out."
"I can take it from here, Kyon," Yokoo said. "Go update the flatscreen."
"Understood," Iida said, and disappeared.
"I thought he just said nobody could leave!" Miyata protested.
Yokoo waved that concern away. "Iida doesn't count as anybody. He can go where he pleases."
That made little sense to Miyata, but there were more pressing lines of questioning to pursue: "Okay. If you guys are helping me, then you need to let me out, too. My surveillance is going to get suspicious, and I've got something to do-"
"Something?" Yokoo grinned. "Or someone?"
Miyata refused to deign that with an answer, countenance showing a rare anger. "Look, quit messing around. I haven't got time for this, and neither does-"
"Tamamori's safe."
"...what?" Miyata felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. "...you guys have him?" he asked, suddenly hollow with all the pent up stress gone.
"We have him," Yokoo lied. It wasn't the truth yet, but there was no point in making Miyata less cooperative.
"Why didn't you just say so?"
Yokoo shrugged. "Thought you might like to know that we've got you, too."
Miyata blinked. "何?"
Yokoo laughed. "You're funny when you get thrown, Miyata." He spread his hands. "Simply put: your surveillance is going to think we've killed you for digging too deeply into our affairs. Remember Nikaido? He's hauling your body back to base as we speak."
"But you aren't going to kill me?" Miyata felt like he had to ask. Just to make sure. Things had been happening weirdly all week, and these past few minutes had brought it all to a figurative boil.
Yokoo gave a sardonic smile. "We could, if we wanted to make Tamamori sad."
*
"Boss...?" Senga said tentatively, knocking on the thick door to Takizawa's private quarters. If things were going on, then Watchtower were going to be busy at the moment, Iida tracking events out in the real world, and Yokoo -- well. If he responded at all, Yokoo would probably dismiss as impertinent any request Senga lodged to be let into Tackey's secure area online. And then he'd tell Senga to go play with his toys instead, or something lame like that.
From experience, Senga knew his only current option was to hope that Takizawa wasn't online at all, and getting update feeds the cumbersome, manual way -- live -- instead. Maybe they could sit together for real and Senga could be a very big fly on Tackey's non-virtual wall.
His hand was poised to knock again, when Takizawa's voice came through: "Senga?"
"It's me, Boss," Senga said. "Can I--"
"Come in."
"Thanks," Senga said, voice not much more than a mumble as he shuffled through the door and shut it behind himself. Takizawa patted the empty space on the couch beside him, and Senga duly sat. "Hiromii took Nika-chan, Boss," he said without preamble, a depressed note in his voice.
"Well, yes," Takizawa said, practical. "You two were just playing, or so I heard, and there are things to be done out there."
Senga slouched a little deeper into the couch. "Yeah... but Hiromii said it was because he couldn't hijack the MPT by himself, but he's totally done it before. He's old, but he's not that old."
Takizawa snorted. "How old is that old? Am I That Old...?" Given the beat of silence in which Senga played hesitation clear on his face, Takizawa clutched at his heart. "You wound me, child."
"Sorry," Senga mumbled, and leaned in to Takizawa's side. "You're not that old, Boss... You're just-- ow."
"You should have known better than to even start that sentence," Takizawa said, smacking Senga lightly upside the head.
"Sorry..."
"You can't be helped." With a long-suffering sigh, Takizawa ruffled Senga's hair. "Kitayama's just jealous."
Senga blinked twice. Non sequitur? "Hiromii?" he asked.
"No, there's another boy called Kitayama here that we've been keeping locked in the basement," Takizawa said, "who is also unhappy about having to share your company."
Senga raised an eyebrow. "Is th--"
"No."
Senga blinked again.
"Kitayama doesn't have a roommate, you know," Takizawa said. "Since Daisuke moved out."
"You mean Taipi?"
Takizawa winked.
"Oh," Senga said. "Well, neither did I until Nika-chan moved in..."
"Mm," Takizawa said. "But it's nice having a roommate, isn't it."
"Yeah...? Ohhhh..." Comprehension dawned on Senga's face. "Hiromii doesn't hang around my room much anymore."
Takizawa snorted. "When he practically lived there before." His face softened though, to something Senga couldn't quite read the next second: "So make sure to include him a little more in your games from now on, alright?" When Senga nodded, so did Takizawa. "Good." He smiled. "And you'll tell me how that goes, won't you?"
Senga grinned. "Yes, Boss..."
"I worry about you boys sometimes," Takizawa grinned back.
"Tono... 失礼します," a third voice said.
Senga glanced up to see Totsuka standing in the doorway, hands clasped and bowed at the waist.
"はい," Takizawa deadpanned.
Totsuka took two steps in. "T41 and the Second are ETA five minutes; K17 and 21-K have reached their target. Or, Mitsu has. Nikaido's catching up and will be there shortly."
"And?" Senga blurted. Takizawa cuffed him gently over the back of the head.
"And... aaand, actually that is all for now." Totsuka's eyes looked heaven-ward. "But I've been given reason to believe that we may have lost Hashimoto again, so your next updates will be brought by our Third and Fourth." Bowing deeply a second time-- "失礼します." --he left the room.
"...Hashimoto," Takizawa shook his head, and poked at the pager Yokoo had left with him. "Iida?" No response, and Takizawa sighed again. "We really ought to do something about that child," he said. "I wonder if Sanada and Nozawa would let the Guard take him off their hands, if I made Tottsu ask nicely."
"Mm," Senga said, not really caring either way.
"Maybe?" Around the doorjamb, the Third Guard popped his head in. "Boss, Sir." Snapping into a sharp salute, he held it until Takizawa returned him a nod.
"More updates already, Tsukada?"
Tsukada grinned. "Taipi and Fumito are down to ETA one minute," he said. "They're going faster than expected; Yokoo thinks they're racing, and says next time he'll just factor that into the calculations by default."
"A good idea," Takizawa nodded, "given nobody incapacitates themselves."
"Um. Speaking of that, Kitayama has the target disabled, and Nikaido's caught up to him."
Senga sat up, and Tsukada glanced him a reassuring smile. "They're a little closer to the next stop than Yokoo recommended, but I'm sure they'll be fine."
Senga curled up again. "But a stop means security."
Tsukada nodded. "It's a pretty big transit point too, so um. There's kind of a lot of security there. Iida's monitoring those numbers." He turned his eyes back to Takizawa, glancing at the miniature flatscreen in his hand. "Yokoo anticipates a hijack alarm would have been called about ten seconds ago, and--"
"Sir," Goseki said, trotting around the corner. Tsukada grinned at the tag and promptly disappeared. He'd be going back to the server room, Senga knew, where Yokoo's flatscreen would be dumping an automated scrolling feed of status updates in raw code. Not for the first time, Senga wished he could read that stuff.
"The alarm actually sounded forty seconds ago," Goseki said. "It seems that somebody was actually awake on that transport. Security at the next stop is scrambling, and extras from the stop prior are also on their way. Since the transport was stopped later than expected, security will be able to get there faster than expected, too. Kitayama and Nikaido will have to hurry." And with that he, too, disappeared from the room.
Senga curled into Takizawa's side, trying to find solace in the hand that was stroking his hair even as lead pooled deep in his stomach like acid rain. Even if station security mainly existed for the general public -- to be the visible ones who you could go complain to if somebody stole your stuff or beat you up, and to stop fare evaders and stuff -- that didn't make them any less armed or dangerous. They were the government's general response arm, and there were kind of a lot of them.
"This isn't fair," Senga mumbled. "I hate being left behind."
If Takizawa heard him, he didn't reply. "I don't know him as well, relatively," Takizawa mused instead, "so you tell me: How crazy is Nikaido?"
Senga blinked. "...not very?" he hazarded. "I mean, he's weird and stuff. But it's more... weird than crazy, you know?" In Senga's books, the Honor Guard was crazy, and Tsukada was very crazy. By that scale, Nikaido didn't rank so high.
"Mm," Takizawa said, a small smile on his face. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see how well he fares."
"Boss?"
Takizawa patted Senga's head. "Since you're learning to skate, maybe next time you can go out with Kitayama instead."
"Could I?" Senga perked up.
"Only if you make him promise me that he'll bring you back alive first," Takizawa smiled.
"Um," Senga said, uncertain. "...okay?"
Takizawa just laughed, and suddenly security wasn't the only thing making Senga worry about Nikaido at all.
*
"What the hell?" Shouting over at Kitayama, Nikaido skated up to the transport up high on its magnetic tracks. It irked him that he'd been going as fast as he could and still hadn't been able to keep pace. And now Kitayama was crouched atop the transport -- which had somehow been stopped -- with a bunch of red-tagged, raw-ended wires in one hand, and Nikaido had missed it. "How'd you do that?"
"Trade secret," Kitayama smirked, with a superior air that grated on Nikaido's nerves even more. "Since you're late, hold these." Nonchalantly, he tossed the wires down.
Nikaido cursed, fumbling the catch. Diving after them, he cursed again when Kitayama laughed. "Nevermind. We don't need them anyway."
"If you don't need me here, then why the hell did you even drag me out?" Nikaido snapped. Not more than 'anything' per se, but more than one hell of a lot of things, he hated getting yanked around on a leash. Kitayama, unfortunately, seemed to like a little leash yanking.
"Watch and learn," was all Kitayama said. Nikaido opened his mouth to shout an angry riposte when an alarming, high-pitched whine sounded from one of Kitayama's skates -- the right one. His left seemed stuck to the transport's roof, defying the right's attempt to hover, and each fought loudly in opposite directions. Warily Nikaido circled Kitayama once, before backing away with his ears covered as the sound grew to almost painful levels, Kitayama's skates beginning to visibly vibrate as they overheated, straining more than they were ever built to.
"Skates aren't supposed to do that," Nikaido shouted. "What the hell are you doing? Kitayama? Hey...!"
He got his answer a couple of seconds later when the whine came to a peak and Kitayama forced his foot down against the transport's roof hatch. The blast of released energy took out its hinges and lock like a miniature explosion, the hatch itself felled into the transport proper.
Nikaido stared. And hovered in to peer down the transport's new mid-sized hole. "Kinda sad if there was some innocent sittin' in that seat you just flattened down there," he said.
"There wasn't. I checked before you got here," Kitayama said mildly, seating himself casually on the transport's roof and stretching his legs out. The air above his skates shimmered with excess heat.
"You're teaching me how to do that when we get back, too," Nikaido said, pointing to Kitayama's footwear to make himself quite clear. "Just so you know, okay?"
Kitayama gave him a lazy smile. "Say something, Nika-chan? I've done all the hard work but our target's still in there. Go fetch."
Nikaido rolled his eyes. "Whatever, old man." But dropped through the busted hatch into the transport without further ado.
Looking down the transport's magnetic tracks, Kitayama squinted a little. It was kind of dark, but unless his eyes were playing tricks, he imagined that he could see activity off near the horizon. His gut told him it was coming their way, which was a little concerning...
Nevertheless.
"Take your time," he called down to Nikaido, keeping his voice easy with only a hint of sarcasm, "because, you know, we've got plenty."
No point in worrying the kid unnecessarily. Yet. Kitayama smiled to himself, and lay back against the transport's roof. He'd probably just freak out, and that would be a bother. Life was too short for undue stress.
a message from Tamamori saying Just kidding~ or maybe 「愛してるぜ」 (i♥u)
Miyata froze. "だれ?" (Who is it?)
"こんばんは宮田 (good evening, Miyata)," said the skinny one
"横尾渉でございます (I'm Yokoo Wataru -polite)," he said, and gestured to the second figure. "こちらは飯田恭平 (And this is Iida Kyohei)."
Miyata blinked. "何 (what)?"
"Tono... 失礼します (excuse me; lit. i'll be rude)," a third voice said.
"はい (yes)," Takizawa deadpanned.
And still, nothing really progresses! ♥ But midsemester break, yay~ *writewritewrite* That EDITING IS FOR THE WEAK mantra, I need a bandana of it. To tie over my eyes.
★ Now with added Miyata bit, as of Apr 16th or so. 8Db
The Boss and the Boy; K17, 21-K.
( 34: walking with WMDs )
Miyata's left leg wouldn't stop jittering. A woman -- probably the only other one not online on the transport -- was giving him dirty looks as his foot tap-tap-tapped against the MPT floor. Miyata bit his lip and gave her an apologetic smile, sheepishly slipping his netgear on. The transport wouldn't go any faster with him watching its progress after all, no matter how anxious he was for it to reach the Capital's centre already.
His default cottage was dark, no candles lit or fire burning when he entered it, and quiet too. No new mail meant no Masashi... Miyata sighed. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he'd still sort of been hoping he'd been wrong. That it'd been a mistake at best, or a joke at worst, and he'd log on and find a message from Tamamori saying Just kidding~ or maybe 「愛してるぜ」. But, no.
"...ただいま," he said anyway out of habit as he toed his shoes off. An 'I'm home' with no one to hear it.
"お帰りなさい," said a voice. Welcome back.
Miyata froze. "だれ?" he called, tentative at first but then suddenly angrier when there was no response after a few seconds: "Show yourself!"
Two figures Miyata had never seen before materialized on the couch, sitting comfortably side by side. "こんばんは宮田," said the skinny one -- the one with his eyes actually open -- grinning. Miyata narrowed his eyes. Such a casual good evening as if the language he said it in was nothing. There were others who spoke Old Local in the government, in the Capital, but they were very few and far between. Knowledge of it was the only reason Miyata had been allowed to work as inefficiently as he had, for as long as he had.
"Who are you?" Miyata asked, pointedly reverting to Global despite himself. "How do you know me?"
The skinny one gave another toothy grin. "横尾渉でございます," he said, and gestured to the second figure. "こちらは飯田恭平." Yokoo Wataru. Iida Kyohei. Miyata tried to think of having heard the names before, perhaps on lists at work, but got no mental hits. Yokoo continued: "We're also known as Y00 and I14 respectively. Perhaps you've heard of our house master? Hideaki Takizawa."
Oh, Miyata thought. Pieces of lightbulb. Then Iida was that phoenix model guy Tamamori had based the kraken off of, and -- but what were they doing here? "...Takizawa's case isn't my department," he settled on saying, trying to keep his expression slack.
"Despite the fact you've shown some unreasonable interest in us lately, according to my sources?" Yokoo said, narrowing his eyes.
Miyata swallowed. "That's..."
Abruptly, the cottage's door and chimney disappeared, its windows suddenly filled in with concrete. And Iida's avatar finally opened its eyes, gaze flickering first to Yokoo before settling on Miyata straight ahead. "Secured."
"Ahh~" Yokoo said, all the menace seeming to drain out of his posture as he reclined in the couch and grinned in a way that wasn't half as sharp as before. "About time. So, M15," he continued. "Miyata. What do you prefer to be called?"
"...Miyata?" Miyata said, bewildered. "Did you just lock out my surveillance?" The cottage walls now reminded him eerily of government virtual cells gone homely.
"Yes," Iida replied, in almost a monotone. "Modified prison scenario. Nobody can enter or leave. Moreover, nobody can see in or out."
"I can take it from here, Kyon," Yokoo said. "Go update the flatscreen."
"Understood," Iida said, and disappeared.
"I thought he just said nobody could leave!" Miyata protested.
Yokoo waved that concern away. "Iida doesn't count as anybody. He can go where he pleases."
That made little sense to Miyata, but there were more pressing lines of questioning to pursue: "Okay. If you guys are helping me, then you need to let me out, too. My surveillance is going to get suspicious, and I've got something to do-"
"Something?" Yokoo grinned. "Or someone?"
Miyata refused to deign that with an answer, countenance showing a rare anger. "Look, quit messing around. I haven't got time for this, and neither does-"
"Tamamori's safe."
"...what?" Miyata felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. "...you guys have him?" he asked, suddenly hollow with all the pent up stress gone.
"We have him," Yokoo lied. It wasn't the truth yet, but there was no point in making Miyata less cooperative.
"Why didn't you just say so?"
Yokoo shrugged. "Thought you might like to know that we've got you, too."
Miyata blinked. "何?"
Yokoo laughed. "You're funny when you get thrown, Miyata." He spread his hands. "Simply put: your surveillance is going to think we've killed you for digging too deeply into our affairs. Remember Nikaido? He's hauling your body back to base as we speak."
"But you aren't going to kill me?" Miyata felt like he had to ask. Just to make sure. Things had been happening weirdly all week, and these past few minutes had brought it all to a figurative boil.
Yokoo gave a sardonic smile. "We could, if we wanted to make Tamamori sad."
*
"Boss...?" Senga said tentatively, knocking on the thick door to Takizawa's private quarters. If things were going on, then Watchtower were going to be busy at the moment, Iida tracking events out in the real world, and Yokoo -- well. If he responded at all, Yokoo would probably dismiss as impertinent any request Senga lodged to be let into Tackey's secure area online. And then he'd tell Senga to go play with his toys instead, or something lame like that.
From experience, Senga knew his only current option was to hope that Takizawa wasn't online at all, and getting update feeds the cumbersome, manual way -- live -- instead. Maybe they could sit together for real and Senga could be a very big fly on Tackey's non-virtual wall.
His hand was poised to knock again, when Takizawa's voice came through: "Senga?"
"It's me, Boss," Senga said. "Can I--"
"Come in."
"Thanks," Senga said, voice not much more than a mumble as he shuffled through the door and shut it behind himself. Takizawa patted the empty space on the couch beside him, and Senga duly sat. "Hiromii took Nika-chan, Boss," he said without preamble, a depressed note in his voice.
"Well, yes," Takizawa said, practical. "You two were just playing, or so I heard, and there are things to be done out there."
Senga slouched a little deeper into the couch. "Yeah... but Hiromii said it was because he couldn't hijack the MPT by himself, but he's totally done it before. He's old, but he's not that old."
Takizawa snorted. "How old is that old? Am I That Old...?" Given the beat of silence in which Senga played hesitation clear on his face, Takizawa clutched at his heart. "You wound me, child."
"Sorry," Senga mumbled, and leaned in to Takizawa's side. "You're not that old, Boss... You're just-- ow."
"You should have known better than to even start that sentence," Takizawa said, smacking Senga lightly upside the head.
"Sorry..."
"You can't be helped." With a long-suffering sigh, Takizawa ruffled Senga's hair. "Kitayama's just jealous."
Senga blinked twice. Non sequitur? "Hiromii?" he asked.
"No, there's another boy called Kitayama here that we've been keeping locked in the basement," Takizawa said, "who is also unhappy about having to share your company."
Senga raised an eyebrow. "Is th--"
"No."
Senga blinked again.
"Kitayama doesn't have a roommate, you know," Takizawa said. "Since Daisuke moved out."
"You mean Taipi?"
Takizawa winked.
"Oh," Senga said. "Well, neither did I until Nika-chan moved in..."
"Mm," Takizawa said. "But it's nice having a roommate, isn't it."
"Yeah...? Ohhhh..." Comprehension dawned on Senga's face. "Hiromii doesn't hang around my room much anymore."
Takizawa snorted. "When he practically lived there before." His face softened though, to something Senga couldn't quite read the next second: "So make sure to include him a little more in your games from now on, alright?" When Senga nodded, so did Takizawa. "Good." He smiled. "And you'll tell me how that goes, won't you?"
Senga grinned. "Yes, Boss..."
"I worry about you boys sometimes," Takizawa grinned back.
"Tono... 失礼します," a third voice said.
Senga glanced up to see Totsuka standing in the doorway, hands clasped and bowed at the waist.
"はい," Takizawa deadpanned.
Totsuka took two steps in. "T41 and the Second are ETA five minutes; K17 and 21-K have reached their target. Or, Mitsu has. Nikaido's catching up and will be there shortly."
"And?" Senga blurted. Takizawa cuffed him gently over the back of the head.
"And... aaand, actually that is all for now." Totsuka's eyes looked heaven-ward. "But I've been given reason to believe that we may have lost Hashimoto again, so your next updates will be brought by our Third and Fourth." Bowing deeply a second time-- "失礼します." --he left the room.
"...Hashimoto," Takizawa shook his head, and poked at the pager Yokoo had left with him. "Iida?" No response, and Takizawa sighed again. "We really ought to do something about that child," he said. "I wonder if Sanada and Nozawa would let the Guard take him off their hands, if I made Tottsu ask nicely."
"Mm," Senga said, not really caring either way.
"Maybe?" Around the doorjamb, the Third Guard popped his head in. "Boss, Sir." Snapping into a sharp salute, he held it until Takizawa returned him a nod.
"More updates already, Tsukada?"
Tsukada grinned. "Taipi and Fumito are down to ETA one minute," he said. "They're going faster than expected; Yokoo thinks they're racing, and says next time he'll just factor that into the calculations by default."
"A good idea," Takizawa nodded, "given nobody incapacitates themselves."
"Um. Speaking of that, Kitayama has the target disabled, and Nikaido's caught up to him."
Senga sat up, and Tsukada glanced him a reassuring smile. "They're a little closer to the next stop than Yokoo recommended, but I'm sure they'll be fine."
Senga curled up again. "But a stop means security."
Tsukada nodded. "It's a pretty big transit point too, so um. There's kind of a lot of security there. Iida's monitoring those numbers." He turned his eyes back to Takizawa, glancing at the miniature flatscreen in his hand. "Yokoo anticipates a hijack alarm would have been called about ten seconds ago, and--"
"Sir," Goseki said, trotting around the corner. Tsukada grinned at the tag and promptly disappeared. He'd be going back to the server room, Senga knew, where Yokoo's flatscreen would be dumping an automated scrolling feed of status updates in raw code. Not for the first time, Senga wished he could read that stuff.
"The alarm actually sounded forty seconds ago," Goseki said. "It seems that somebody was actually awake on that transport. Security at the next stop is scrambling, and extras from the stop prior are also on their way. Since the transport was stopped later than expected, security will be able to get there faster than expected, too. Kitayama and Nikaido will have to hurry." And with that he, too, disappeared from the room.
Senga curled into Takizawa's side, trying to find solace in the hand that was stroking his hair even as lead pooled deep in his stomach like acid rain. Even if station security mainly existed for the general public -- to be the visible ones who you could go complain to if somebody stole your stuff or beat you up, and to stop fare evaders and stuff -- that didn't make them any less armed or dangerous. They were the government's general response arm, and there were kind of a lot of them.
"This isn't fair," Senga mumbled. "I hate being left behind."
If Takizawa heard him, he didn't reply. "I don't know him as well, relatively," Takizawa mused instead, "so you tell me: How crazy is Nikaido?"
Senga blinked. "...not very?" he hazarded. "I mean, he's weird and stuff. But it's more... weird than crazy, you know?" In Senga's books, the Honor Guard was crazy, and Tsukada was very crazy. By that scale, Nikaido didn't rank so high.
"Mm," Takizawa said, a small smile on his face. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see how well he fares."
"Boss?"
Takizawa patted Senga's head. "Since you're learning to skate, maybe next time you can go out with Kitayama instead."
"Could I?" Senga perked up.
"Only if you make him promise me that he'll bring you back alive first," Takizawa smiled.
"Um," Senga said, uncertain. "...okay?"
Takizawa just laughed, and suddenly security wasn't the only thing making Senga worry about Nikaido at all.
*
"What the hell?" Shouting over at Kitayama, Nikaido skated up to the transport up high on its magnetic tracks. It irked him that he'd been going as fast as he could and still hadn't been able to keep pace. And now Kitayama was crouched atop the transport -- which had somehow been stopped -- with a bunch of red-tagged, raw-ended wires in one hand, and Nikaido had missed it. "How'd you do that?"
"Trade secret," Kitayama smirked, with a superior air that grated on Nikaido's nerves even more. "Since you're late, hold these." Nonchalantly, he tossed the wires down.
Nikaido cursed, fumbling the catch. Diving after them, he cursed again when Kitayama laughed. "Nevermind. We don't need them anyway."
"If you don't need me here, then why the hell did you even drag me out?" Nikaido snapped. Not more than 'anything' per se, but more than one hell of a lot of things, he hated getting yanked around on a leash. Kitayama, unfortunately, seemed to like a little leash yanking.
"Watch and learn," was all Kitayama said. Nikaido opened his mouth to shout an angry riposte when an alarming, high-pitched whine sounded from one of Kitayama's skates -- the right one. His left seemed stuck to the transport's roof, defying the right's attempt to hover, and each fought loudly in opposite directions. Warily Nikaido circled Kitayama once, before backing away with his ears covered as the sound grew to almost painful levels, Kitayama's skates beginning to visibly vibrate as they overheated, straining more than they were ever built to.
"Skates aren't supposed to do that," Nikaido shouted. "What the hell are you doing? Kitayama? Hey...!"
He got his answer a couple of seconds later when the whine came to a peak and Kitayama forced his foot down against the transport's roof hatch. The blast of released energy took out its hinges and lock like a miniature explosion, the hatch itself felled into the transport proper.
Nikaido stared. And hovered in to peer down the transport's new mid-sized hole. "Kinda sad if there was some innocent sittin' in that seat you just flattened down there," he said.
"There wasn't. I checked before you got here," Kitayama said mildly, seating himself casually on the transport's roof and stretching his legs out. The air above his skates shimmered with excess heat.
"You're teaching me how to do that when we get back, too," Nikaido said, pointing to Kitayama's footwear to make himself quite clear. "Just so you know, okay?"
Kitayama gave him a lazy smile. "Say something, Nika-chan? I've done all the hard work but our target's still in there. Go fetch."
Nikaido rolled his eyes. "Whatever, old man." But dropped through the busted hatch into the transport without further ado.
Looking down the transport's magnetic tracks, Kitayama squinted a little. It was kind of dark, but unless his eyes were playing tricks, he imagined that he could see activity off near the horizon. His gut told him it was coming their way, which was a little concerning...
Nevertheless.
"Take your time," he called down to Nikaido, keeping his voice easy with only a hint of sarcasm, "because, you know, we've got plenty."
No point in worrying the kid unnecessarily. Yet. Kitayama smiled to himself, and lay back against the transport's roof. He'd probably just freak out, and that would be a bother. Life was too short for undue stress.
a message from Tamamori saying Just kidding~ or maybe 「愛してるぜ」 (i♥u)
Miyata froze. "だれ?" (Who is it?)
"こんばんは宮田 (good evening, Miyata)," said the skinny one
"横尾渉でございます (I'm Yokoo Wataru -polite)," he said, and gestured to the second figure. "こちらは飯田恭平 (And this is Iida Kyohei)."
Miyata blinked. "何 (what)?"
"Tono... 失礼します (excuse me; lit. i'll be rude)," a third voice said.
"はい (yes)," Takizawa deadpanned.