Mei Hatsume walked briskly to the "employees only" entrance of the Intelligence Research Office of Japan. Her boots splashed in shallow puddles on her way to the beige door. She wore her denim uniform on the dark morning, and fingerless gloves doned on her hands. A black bag was held in her right hand at her side.
She flashed her ID card to the blue-uniformed guards at each side of the entrance, and, like gentlemen, let her pass.
"Thank you, good sirs," she called back as she opened the door and slipped in. They didn't say anything back, only stood, emotionless.
The yellow-lit hall was empty except for her, and she walked down to the clock. She pulled out a paper card from her bag and punched it in, the clock reading five in the morning. She was officially an hour early. "As always," she said while rolling her eyes. "Bet I'm gonna get yelled at again."
Hatsume walked farther down the hall, past the restrooms, turned left, to a metal door with the intimidating "Keep Out" sign bolted onto it. The workshop.
With a turn of the knob, the door swung in and she shouted into the giant room, "I'm hoooo-ooome!"
Her voice echoed in the cavernous space, the only beings welcoming her were the countless pieces of machinery and tools. And that's just how she liked it.
"Why am I even surprised?"
Hatsume looked up and saw the head of the engineers himself, named Higari Maijima, but known on the street as Power Loader. He wore the same uniform as her, but it was a lot baggier because of his twig of a body.
"Morning, sensei," Hatsume greeted as she looked back to the papers on her work desk.
"You know, humans have to sleep," Power Loader said as he crossed the room to his work desk, that was much bigger than hers, to her chagrin. But she could tolerate her small desk.
"Well, good thing I'm not human," she quipped as she scribbled down some notes at the side of the blue print.
"Oh, don't let the guards hear you say that."
"But it's my dream to get experimented on!"
"Then you have freaky dreams."
"Alas," Hatsume leaned back in her chair, the back of her right hand resting dramatically on her forehead, "then I will never be able to grace the world of science with my organs."
"Great, now get back to work," Power Loader huffed.
"I thought you wanted me to stop working and sleep."
Power Loader didn't even look up from his papers. "Well, since you're here, get to work. All you ever do is work, so I start to think you're sick if you're not."
"Wow, you sure do care."
Nevertheless, they continued working in silence, comfortable with only each other than if not alone. That was their system: make a few snarky comments back and forth, tell the other to work, then carry on for hours in silence other than the melody of machinery. If there was anything that they understood about the other it was definitely the love of engineering, and that's what they respected, that's what their friendship was founded on.
Eventually, at seven in the morning, the other engineers and mechanics filed in to their respective work desks and worked on their plans, talking with each other to help come to a solution. Every once in a while, one would leave the room to fix a problem assigned to them, or to use the restroom; other than that, no one left.
Hatsume was lost to the world of the living and time itself, as she scribbled plans and calculated solutions. Her work desk was always overrun by blue prints and hastily-written notes and occasionally coffee mugs, but that's how she liked it. anything she needed, it was right there.
She was writing down a possible solution to the broken solar panels when a loud bell rang, signalling break time. Everyone got up from their work desks and walked to the exit, traveling down to the cafeteria; except for Hatsume and Power Loader, whom still jotted down notes.
Power Loader glanced up at Hatsume. "You know, you should probably go eat lunch, or at least something."
Hatsume huffed a laugh. "I'll leave after you leave."
"Good thing I'm almost done writing."
Hatsume merely rolled her eyes, a 'v' of a smile doned her face.
A few minutes went by, and just as Power Loader was about to get up, a man in a crisp business suit opened the door. "Mr. Maijimi, Mr. Todoroki would like to see you in his office."
Power Loader leaned back in his chair. "What for?"
"Declassified information."
"Oh, something serious, eh?" Power Loader glanced at Hatsume again. "Remember to go eat something."
Hatsume raised up a thumbs-up. "Will do, sensei!"
Power Loader only shook his head slightly while checking if the ceiling was still there.
The two left, the door closed, and Hatsume was left alone in silence. Pencil scratching on paper was left to be. She liked it. Perfect silence.
She didn't know how much time went by, but before she knew it, Power Loader and the guy in the business suit came back. Power Loader merely walked to his desk and slumped back into his chair.
"Ms. Hatsume, Mr. Todoroki would like to see you," the man in the business suit said.
She quirked one eyebrow up, flicked her eyes to Power Loader for a second, then back to the business suit man. She folded her arms. "Really?!" she exclaimed with a grin.
"Yes, now come with me."
One last glance at Power Loader and Hatsume stood up and followed the man to the hall. He lead her to the right side of the building, a place she has never been to. The man lead her up a flight of stairs, past several doors until he stopped in front of a gray door with a big "Todoroki" stamped at eye level; Mr. Todoroki's office.
The man opened the door and Hatsume followed him. The room was relatively big for an office, but the walls were plain except for a few framed pictures of diplomas or pictures from the past. The carpet was a faintly blue color, and a large desk filled up most of the space in front of the windows. The city could be seen in the distance, past the lines of solar panels.
But the sight of the man behind the desk sent a shiver down Hatsume's spine, though she would never admit it. The tall man was heavily muscled, and could probably pop off her head from her neck with one hand. His sharp features and stern eyes only made the intimidation worse, including his closely trimmed beard and mustache. His arms were folded as if he were unimpressed.
The man who led her here bowed slightly. "Mr. Todoroki, this is Ms. Hatsume."
Todoroki's eyes narrowed. "I assumed. You can go. Hatsume, take a seat."
Her escort took his leave as Hatsume moved forward and sat in one of the puffy chairs in front of his desk. He didn't say anything else, only looked down at a file on his desk. Hatsume peered at the contacts and saw her picture paper-clipped to the corner. So this was her file.
Hatsume twiddled her thumbs and gazed around the room. She never met the big boss in person, she saw him on occasion, passing through the halls, but never face-to-face. And he was just as scary up close. She kept her poker face, but anxiety still seeped into her stomach.
Finally, Todoroki looked up. Hatsume straightened her back. "It seems your records are clean enough."
She nodded vigorously. "Mm-hmm, clean as a whistle."
He only grunted in disdain. "Maijimi put in a good word for you. This assignment was originally for him, but he said you were better suited. You are one of the best engineers we have here. A close second to Maijimi."
Hatsume's smile appeared at the information. "Thank you, sir."
"I'm not done," he said with a glare. She snapped her mouth shut. "Before I explain, I need you to sign this." He pushed a clipboard with a legal document on it. "This information cannot leave this room. If you even whisper what it is you're doing you and the people who heard will be fired. Understand?"
"Yes, sir." She wrote her signature above the dotted line at the bottom of the paper, then handed it back to Todoroki.
"Good, know listen carefully." Todoroki leaned and rested his forearms on his desk, his fingers intertwined. "I need you to build a tank for a large mammal, think a dolphin. I have a research team coming in in a few weeks with a large creature, one thought to have been nonexistent."
Hatsume's hands tightened on their own, excitement filling her chest.
"You are going to work on this alone. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. I work better alone anyway."
"Good. This tank needs to mimic the ocean. Salt concentrations, temperature, and tons of water. This has to be done a week before the research team is due to be back. Got it?"
"Yes, sir. But I have one question."
Todoroki raised a brow. "What?"
"Which ocean is this creature from? Because different oceans have different compositions, and I don't want to kill the thing, so-"
"Shut up." Her mouth closed.
He leaned back in his chair. He seemed to consider telling her or not, flicking his eyes this way and that. Finally, he answered, "The Atlantic. Around Florida. Do whatever it is you have to do. And don't say a word about this to anyone."
But isn't fishing in other waters illegal? Hatsume thought. But she didn't say anything. This guy was annoyed with her already. She once heard of a guy fired because he criticized Todoroki's suit.
"Now are you up for the challenge."
Even if it was illegal, it was still a new project, and she loved working on anything. "Absolutely."
Todoroki smirked. "Perfect. Now sign this." He handed her a different clipboard, this one with five pages. She skimmed through the information before signing her name on multiple dotted lines, then gave it back to him.
"I'm glad we could do business," Todoroki claimed as he stretched out his hand to shake.
"Me too," Hatsume replied. She shook his hand, even though it made her skin crawl.
Hatsume hurried back to the workshop, carrying her project file. She tried to stifle her squeals of joy. "Finally! No more clipping wires and fixing pipes for a whole three weeks! Oh, a dream come true!"
But there was only one way that she got that job, and she just had to find out how he did it.
Hatsume swung the door open, revealing the workshop empty except for Power Loader. Seems that they had a few minutes before break was finished.
"Sensei! How did you do it?!"
Power Loader looked up from his blue print. "Do what?"
"Get me the job!"
"Quiet. Can't talk about it, remember?"
"Oh, right, right." Hatsume placed her project file on her desk. "But how'd you do it?" she inquired, quieter.
Power Loader sighed. "All I did was say you should take the job. Took some convincing, but I managed. By the way, you now owe me."
"Yeah, yeah. But now I got this awesome job! Thank you, sensei!" Hatsume spun back around to her desk. "I start first thing tomorrow. I got three weeks of me, a giant empty in the west wing, and heavy pieces of machinery! Oh, absolute paradise!"
Just then, the bell that signaled the end of break rung overhead.
"'Kay, that's great, now get back to work."
Hello, hello, angelfishcake back at it again with strange fanfictions.
Those of you following my other story, I promise I will update it soon. I just had a lot going on in my life.
And for those of you wondering what the heck this is, it's a Shape of Water au. Only without cleaning people, or multiple friends, or doing-the-do with a sea person. I've never seen Shape of Water, but I know the gist of it. This is honestly something I made up for fun.
Share your thoughts if you'd like.