Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Notes: Ack. I am old orz. I couldn't remember the steps for the scientific method (and I'm too lazy to go dig through my old notebooks) so I Wiki'ed it. Originally written for the Minus Wave Nii challenge but uni suddenly swallowed me alive so I didn't make the deadline. Also, originally supposed to be a oneshot. Definitely not one of my best works but a fun one to work on. As of now, it's only rated G but rating will go up in following parts.
PAY ATTENTION AND TAKE DOWN NOTES
Part 1
i. Define the problem
The video feed from his latest toy was perfectly clear. Nii's eyes narrowed as he watched the Sanzo-ikkou making its way through the forest, idly berating himself for not thinking of a way to include audio capture to his mechanical insect's capabilities.
Nii was in the middle of debating whether to try to learn lip-reading or not when something interesting caught his eye.
Was Hakkai's hand on the small of Goku's back just a little bit proprietary, or was that just his extremely bored imagination working overtime?
Tapping a few keys on his laptop, he zoomed in on the scene. The four were walking along the forest path, Hakkai and Goku a little behind Gojyo and Sanzo. The shorter brunet was saying something, grinning widely, and Hakkai was smiling back at him while he talked.
The hand on Goku's back could have been there for help—the path was a bit steep, after all—but helping hands don't rub their thumbs over the material of one's shirt. And there was a certain glint in Hakkai's eye that Nii found extremely interesting. Also, Goku was the most athletic out of all of the them; if anything, it would have made more sense if he'd been 'helping' Hakkai.
Interesting. Nii propped up his chin on one fist, zooming in a bit more. Very interesting.
ii. Gather information and resources
"Nii-hakase!"
Nii looked up from his position on the floor, where he was trying to untangle himself from black shiny ribbons of tape, tilted his head, and said, "Haa?"
Hwan looked like she wanted to hit him over the head with her clipboard. Repeatedly. Nii grinned at her just to aggravate her even more. Oh. From down here, the view of her impressive chest was quite stunning.
Obviously trying to control her temper, Hwan snarled, "Nii-hakase, what are you doing?"
"I'm looking for old tapes with footage of the Sanzo-ikkou on them," Nii answered. Turning back to his search, he pulled an intact videotape from the mass of black and looked at the label. "Here's one," he muttered to himself.
He needed to see where the change happened. He was pretty sure that he'd have spotted whatever had precipitated the change in Hakkai's and Goku's relationship if he'd been the one monitoring the feeds when it happened. That meant that someone else had been on duty at that time or that they hadn't caught in on tape.
Standing above him with her hands on her hips and looking ready to stomp on his face with her heels, Hwan raged on. "If you'd transferred all this footage to CDs like I'd told you, you wouldn't be having problems right now," she snapped.
Nii chose to ignore her and kept looking.