Agent 22 Special Chapter
The typical emotion for a cadet being called up to the Admiral's office was almost always nervous excitement; the call usually meant a nearby deployment, a graduation of sorts from the lowly cadet status and a new appointment, usually with one of the older teams to hone some real world skills before forming a new unit. It was a bit of hectic pattern but had worked well in the past. All the mattered was that a call to the Admiral's meant the beginning of real life.
When Ohno Satoshi got his call to the Admiral's office, all he felt was sleepy. He'd been out all night with his roommates and some pals from class and had only managed to roll into bed around six in the morning. When his banged up B rang a few hours later, he deliberated not answering it but ultimately decided it was probably important. An hour later, he was sitting outside the office doors.
Another young man was waiting with him, across the small room. He looked extremely nervous and kept fidgeting with his fingers, bouncing one knee in a rhythm Ohno couldn't quite place. His name was Sakurai, Ohno knew, as he'd had a few classes with him in their younger days. He seemed nice enough, maybe a little bookworm-y but genial. Ohno thought maybe he'd talked to him once or twice.
Sakurai looked up and shot him a narrow smile. Ohno returned it through tired eyes; he hoped he stayed awake for what he knew was going to be probably one of the most important briefings of his life. Stupid roommate.
"You can come in now," a soft voice ushered them from the doorway. Sakurai jumped to attention and let his nerves carry him in; when his left leg took a step forward, so did his left arm. Ohno did his best not to snicker, following him into the plush room.
Admiral Kitagawa's office was lined with gold: trophies, awards, random medals that Ohno couldn't identify. There were photographs of him and various leaders, the kind of thing you only heard about or imagined. It didn't seem like a real place.
Right in the middle of the room was a gigantic desk and a comically oversized chair behind it with its back turned to the two of them. Two smaller chairs stood in front of the desk and he and Sakurai took their cues, standing in front of them. It was only when they were both in place that the Admiral turned around and fixed them both with a polite smile.
"Ah, cadets Sakurai and Ohno. Please, sit down."
It was the first time for both of them to see the Admiral in person and it was kind of a strange feeling. He was much older and smaller than Ohno had imagined. Of course, what with the history of the academy and all, it made sense for him to be rather old but when you heard the stories about him in the dormitories, it was hard not to picture some action hero, busting down doors and taking out pirates. The man in front of them was nowhere near feeble but he didn't quite have the aura around him that Ohno had expected.
"I'm sure you're both vaguely aware of why you're up here," he began, not really looking at either of them and fiddling with some papers on his desk. Sakurai nodded with interest and Ohno kind of felt like he was watching this happen to someone else.
"When a cadet is called to this office, it means it is time for his first real assignment," Kitagawa continued, having found whatever he was looking for. "Now, as I'm sure you know, we normally assign new cadets to an experienced team for their first few missions."
Out of the corner of his eye, Ohno could see Sakurai going through the currently active units that they could potentially be attached to in his head. Ohno knew that V6 was off planet for a mission as he had a few friends on that team. There were a few more units that would potentially take the two of them but unless he had missed something, he was pretty sure no one was around or currently on duty. To be honest, their being called up didn't make all that much sense.
"Well, unfortunately," the Admiral continued, voicing Ohno's thoughts, "all of the units we would consider assigning you two to are currently off duty or on mission. There's not much we can do about that and it is indeed an inopportune situation. However, having the two of you graduate this week has been in the planning stages for awhile now and we saw no reason to reverse that decision."
A strange silence hung in the air as both he and Sakurai tried to figure out exactly what the Admiral was getting at. Finally, Sakurai couldn't take it anymore and spoke up, if hesitantly.
"If there's no unit to join," he began, as politely as he could muster, "how exactly are we supposed to..." He trailed off, not sure of what words to use but the Admiral seemed to understand, fixing the two of them with a smile that Ohno wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable with.
"Well, to be honest, we're going to bend the rules a bit for the two of you," he explained. "Since there's no team available, we're going to have you form a duo." There was a sharp intake of breath from Ohno's right but he ignored it. "I know that we don't usually have fresh cadets form duos but there really isn't any other choice. We'll probably have you two form a unit later, when it's time for more cadets to graduate but for now, it'll be the two of you."
Ohno didn't quite know what to think. He wasn't really looking forward to being in a duo with Sakurai; no offense to the other kid but when it came down to it, he wasn't really sure if he wanted Sakurai having his back in a fight. Of course, forming a duo right out of the academy was unheard of and they were definitely going to go down in the record books, forget about dormitory lore, but whether this was actually a good idea remained to be seen.
"You'll be getting your first mission in a few days," Kitagawa continued, ignoring their reactions to his news. "It won't be anything too hard but your performance will affect your assignments in the future so be alert."
"Yes, sir," they echoed each other, catching the hint in the Admiral's words and standing up to go.
"Oh, and cadets?" he called to their retreating backs. They turned around to see a sly smile on their commander's face.
"Good luck surviving the gossip."
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Sho sneaked a sideways glance at his partner, asleep on the shuttle. It shouldn't be too surprising that Ohno had fallen asleep; they'd taken the shuttle fairly early in the morning and judging by the crowd Ohno seemed to hang around with, he probably had been out most of the night before. It still annoyed him, though, that here he was, all nervous and excited and energy, and the one person that would understand all this was busy sleeping.
He still couldn't believe that he and Ohno had been picked as the first cadet duo in the history of the academy. There must have been something that the instructors saw in them, although Sho had no idea what. He always had high scores in written classes but he was horrible in the field ones. He had barely passed Standard Evasion and there were more debacles in Fire Arms than he wanted to remember.
From what he had gathered about Ohno from friends, he wasn't exactly a prodigy, either. Sure, he was a natural at field classes, apparently having some kind of natural grace that let him pick up on things quickly, but he didn't have amazing grades or anything. Sho suspected that Ohno simply didn't try all that hard. If that was the case, there was no hope for their partnership; if there was one personality type Sho couldn't stand, it was a person without passion.
Ohno let out a soft snore and Sho turned his glance to him again. In a few hours they would be on Centra Six and the first mission of the careers would begin. It wasn't anything big; they just had to pick up a package from a contact and bring it back on the next shuttle. As long as they didn't mess anything up, they would be in the running for some bigger missions in the future.
There really was nothing Sho could do at this point other than hope Ohno wasn't a complete idiot. He was sure it would go fine; it was just a routine first mission. As he let Ohno's snores lure him into a nap of his own, all he could do was pray that this all went well.
-------
When they'd landed on the planet that morning, Ohno really hadn't been expecting to have run for his life later in the day. This was supposed to be an easy mission, a simple pick up. Hell, he had almost forgotten his standard issue phase rifle on the counter on his way out. At least it was a good thing he'd gotten a nap in on the shuttle.
Of course, there was no way M-Net could have known that a small group of pirates were going to be making a drop at the exact spot they were supposed to be meeting their contact and if they had known, well, Ohno didn't particularly want to know about it. All that mattered was that he and Sakurai had walked into the bar, dressed in standard uniform, and were met with more trouble than they ever could have bargained for.
"M-Net?!" a voice had called out, strangled, from inside. Sakurai didn't seem to notice the sudden atmosphere change, still keeping an eye out for their contact. It wasn't until Ohno had grabbed onto his sleeve that he seemed to realize anything out of the ordinary was going on.
"Oh, um, hello, gentlemen," his voice was five times higher than Ohno had ever heard it before. "We were just looking for a Mr. Yamazaki. You wouldn't have seen him, by any chance?"
The question was just enough to send one of the more threatening characters in their direction. Sakurai began backing up but Ohno did his best to stand his ground. That is, until the brute actually got close enough for Ohno to smell the musk of too many days in pubs on him and felt his feet backtracking of their own accord.
Ohno knew that they should fight, what with being technically the enforcers of the law and such. However, this was their first mission, and with a quick nod to Sakurai, the two quickly dashed out the doors and down the street, trying their best ignore the shout of "Oi!" from behind them.
"What about our contact?" Sakurai panted beside him, turning a corner quickly and yanking on Ohno's hand to follow his lead.
"Really not the time for this," he replied, finding an old storeroom and pulling the two of them inside. Heavy footsteps pounding by outside but passed their shed and they managed a sigh in relief. After a period of silence, Ohno turned to his new partner.
"So, what do you think we should do?"
Sakurai blinked, obviously as flustered as Ohno. He was the smart one, though (Ohno had decided), so in this kind of situation, it was up to him to figure out a plan of attack. Ohno would take responsibility for whatever happened after that.
"Well, if we don't find our contact, we will have failed our first mission," Sakurai thought aloud, "but if we go back out there, we'll almost certainly be killed."
"And so we should...." Ohno led, trying to get Sakurai to think of a solution. It didn't seem to work, though; the other man looked back at him with wide eyes.
"I think it's lose lose," he finally admitted. "All I can think is to get back to the shuttle and report what happened."
The plan made sense, of course. What else were they supposed to do? Two officers, fresh out of the academy, had no idea how to deal with real pirates, on their own, in the middle of nowhere. But something was nagging at the pit of his stomach. They were the first duo right out of the academy in the history of the place; they couldn't go down without a fight.
For the first time since they had dashed inside, Ohno took a good look at where they had decided to hide. It had potential.
"Okay, here's what we're going to do...."
-------
If Sho weren't so worried for his life, he would probably be cursing the academy for pairing him with possibly the worst partner in existence. Not only did the foolish man want to continue with the mission, he actually was giving credence to what the cadets were saying about them. No, this was just all too frustrating.
"Ready?" Ohno asked from his side. He nodded, although there was no way in hell he wanted to be doing this. With a push of the door, the two re-entered the bar, not drawing the eye of the pirates this time (surprising, considering the quality of their supply shed disguises).
"You find Yamazaki," Ohno whispered. "I've got your back."
Sho nodded quietly and made his way farther into the bar, despite his reservations. Would Yamazaki even still be here, after everything that had happened earlier? He definitely wasn't that drunk over in the corner or any of the Alainns serving drinks.
A flash of metal from the corner of his eye alerted Sho to a man waving discreetly at him from another table. Was this is? Could they finally go home?
"Black cats are wary of the night," Sho murmured as he neared the table.
"But they wouldn't go out if they knew true danger," the man answered and Sho sighed in relief, sinking down into the seat across from him. He was a small man, a little greasy looking and Sho knew he'd never even look twice at him in any other situation. Which is probably why he was chosen as the contact, he reflected.
"Damn, this is dangerous, kid," Yamazaki whispered to him, giving him a look of near reproach. "You two have guts coming back in here."
"It's the mission," Sho shrugged, despite desperately agreeing inwardly. "We don't want to go back empty handed."
"It's your funeral," Yamazaki sighed, pushing a small disc across the table to him. "Here's what you came for. Now, be careful."
"Thanks," Sho replied earnestly and got up to head towards where Ohno was waiting near the entrance. Something must have shown from underneath his shaggy overcoat or something, though, because all of the sudden, a shout rang out behind him and he broke into a run.
"Get behind me!," Ohno yelled, ripping his own coat off and pulling out a phase rifle that Sho hadn't even been aware he'd had with him. Four quick shots slowed the pirates down but they were still coming and Ohno was going to run out of charge soon.
"Ohno!" Sho suddenly had an idea, looking about the room. His partner spared a quick glance at him before returning his attention the advancing gang of pirates. "Shoot at the ceiling!"
"What?" Ohno asked, not taking his eyes off the men constantly coming towards them.
"Just do it!" Sho tried again, emphasizing the words with a small punch to the arm. Ohno shrugged and shot at the ceiling, a little above the group of pirates. Just as Sho had predicted, this caused the ridiculously old lighting system to lose the last bit of power it was clinging to the ceiling with and come crashing down. Luckily, no regular customers were in that section of the bar (most having left long before the showdown).
With most of the pirates now incapacitated, it took Ohno and Sho only a little amount of effort to take out the remaining three or so. With the rope and various other tools they'd borrowed from the supply shed, it only took a half hour to immobilize the entire gang.
".....we did it," Sho breathed, staring wide eyed down at the criminals that were looking back none too happy at them.
"Course we did," Ohno replied nonchalantly. "What else were we going to do?"
"Go home," Sho answered, still not entirely sure if his partner was all there.
"But now we get to go home and bring fifteen pirates in with us." He gave Sho a lopsided grin. "They're never going to regret making us the first duo now."
And somehow, at that moment, Sho realized that he had somehow found himself in the midst of something special. Now all he could do was try not to mess it up.
-------
"And then Captain here decided we weren't going to go back without the disc, let alone a few pirates," Sakurai was telling a cadet in the hallway a few days later. Although he sounded annoyed with him, he knew that Sakurai couldn't be too mad; they'd already received commendations from the higher ups.
"How did you know you were going to be able to get them?" Yamashita asked excitedly, caught up in the story. "What was the ultimate plan?"
Sakurai and Ohno shared a look. In truth, there had been no plan, just a lot of grabbing of supplies, two old farming cloaks, and a lot of false confidence. The cadet didn't need to know that, though.
"Sakurai noticed we should take out the ceiling, so that the rest of the gang couldn't catch up to us--"
"--which was because Ohno was busy taking out the rest of them--"
"--so down comes crashing all these old wires and pipes and such--"
"--you should have seen their faces!--"
"--and that left us four to stop ourselves---"
"--with only our bare hands!--"
"--well, and some rope and our phase rifles--"
"You guys are incredible!" Yamashita beamed. "Is it true that when it was all over, there were so many pirates piled up it looked like a mountain?"
"Where'd you hear that?" Ohno asked, although it was clear Sakurai wanted to agree; he was getting into the story telling.
"It's going around the dorms," Yamashita replied, all impressed and ecstatic. "That's why everyone's calling you the Yama Duo."
'We have a nickname,' Sakurai mouthed to him.
"I think that's a bit--" Ohno began but before he could finish, Yamashita had dashed off, yelling something behind him about being late for a meeting.
"We're officially legendary," Sakurai smiled and Ohno thought it was strange that, of the two of them, Sakurai was the one getting the most pleasure out of this, despite being the most against the original plan. All in all, he had to admit, though, he never could have done it without him.
"I think we were legendary the day this unit was formed," Ohno shrugged but he couldn't keep the slight smile out of his voice.
"Think we'll still be this cool years from now?" Sakurai was giving him a hopeful grin; he'd accepted their partnership.
"I think we'll be even cooler," Ohno admitted and somewhere, he actually believed it.
"Nice working with you, Captain."
"You too, Sho."
~
Long time, no see! I know this isn't the latest chapter but hopefully you enjoy this flashback to Sho and Ohno's youth. This takes place about 6 years before the events in Agent 22. Obviously, the two have changed a lot from their academy days. Hope you liked it!