Chapter 2: Undisciplined
16:03 PM (Japan Time), Tuesday May the 31st…
"… Ooyama! Move those legs! They're there for something! Or else you're gonna be last one again!"
"Huff, huff! I'm dying!"
"Sure, sure. I've already heard that so many times in these 3 weeks I've been working here… Move it!"
"Gua~h!"
"Jeez. Dekao makes the replacement P. E. teacher get annoyed the whole time."
"Not like he lashes out at the rest of the class, though…"
"I'm gonna die~!"
"Sheesh. Move it! Or else you get to broom, mop and transport half of material to the main building!"
"UWA~H!"
"Fatman won't change, eh, Meiru – chan?"
"What were you expecting, Yaito – chan? After all this time… 3 years ever since the WWW began stirring up trouble… And he hasn't improved in the very least. Chisao – kun needs to make the guy fall down to Earth."
The 2 – A students were running along the edge of the soccer field as part of their P. E. class: Dekao was dramatizing and that only got the P. E. teacher annoyed.
The P. E. teacher was a man on his mid-30s with blonde messy hair, blue eye irises and no trace of beard or moustache.
He had reading glasses on.
He sported a long-sleeved gray vest, navy blue sports pants and white sneakers: he had a chronometer on his right hand too.
"When will the "Super Vitamin" come~?" Dekao cried as he struggled to breathe.
"Never. They're another Bubble Man scam. You got your money wasted in vanity. Again." Tomono calmly replied.
"It's obvious." Hikawa sighed.
"Alright! 2 minutes left!" The teacher called out.
"No more~!"
"Shut up." Meiru hissed at Dekao.
"YIKES!"
"1 minute 30 seconds! Come on!"
"I'm gonna collapse~!"
"I'm so going to make your fats collapse. With a spell!" Meiru threatened while looking pretty if not totally annoyed.
"UWA~H! SPARE ME~!"
"Settled, then. Ooyama! You get to cleanse the storage room in the main building too!" The teacher announced.
"Why me~?"
"You're loud. And you don't take the class seriously. Someone has to teach you that you can't get away with everything."
"Kami – sama~!"
"Someone shower this Fatman in icy water."
"20 seconds! There!"
"Huff, huff!"
"No matter how much you struggle by now, Ooyama, my mind won't change regarding the lesson you need to learn."
"No way~!"
"3, 2, 1! Time!"
The group finally came to a halt and they began to regain their breaths while the teacher pocketed the chronometer and rolled his eyes as he headed for the warehouse: the students began to head back to the changing rooms.
"Oi! Netto! Tell me there's a backdoor!" Dekao moaned.
"You're telling me you've never to look for one in the 2 years we've been studying here?" Netto sighed.
"Find it with your legs, Dekao – kun." Saito scolded.
"The God of Disgrace is upon me~!"
Hikawa had enough so he picked an empty pet bottle, filled it with some faucet water, and then splashed Dekao's face with it: the water did seem to snap Dekao out of it.
"Let's get changed already or we'll be late for the next class. We don't want to get there late because of you, Ooyama – kun." Hikawa scolded him while fuming.
The other guys nodded in agreement and began to change back after they'd had a quick shower: Dekao was sighing the whole time and the students ignored him as they exited the changing rooms and headed for the classrooms.
"What's next?" Netto asked Saito.
"Mr. Next." Hiro joked.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure." Netto didn't find it funny.
"Well. We've got Natural Sciences. We better pay attention because they'll outline the subjects for the exam."
"Subject Man will date Subject Girl?" Hiro joked next.
"Of course not." Hikawa fumed.
"What a lame joke." Tomono complained.
16:37 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Mr. Denpa?"
"Ah. Chief Lezaro. What's the matter?"
"I received an email from Dr. Lartes…"
"Ah. What does he say?"
"He brings up a topic and with a good reason."
"Is that so?"
Two men were having a chat in an office room somewhere which had views of a city street.
One of them, sitting behind a desk, seemed to be close to his mid-20s.
He had short brown hair and his eyes' irises were brown: slight remains of a recent shaving could be spotted on his face too.
He wore a white shirt, a purplish tie, pants and brown shoes.
He also had reading glasses on.
"It regards that man… Keitai Denwa…"
"By all the…"
Chief Lezareno, the visitor, was on his forties and appealed to be slightly taller than the man named "Denpa".
His hair was blonde and neatly combed his face was clean shaven and he seemed to be calm enough.
He was dressed in a gray trench overcoat, a black sports suit and pants along with brown shoes.
He had sunglasses on, though.
"Indeed. We've all but forgotten about that man by now and we'd kept at it hadn't Dr. Lartes warned us. He feels like the guy's silence is a bad sign: he could be plotting something deadly, even."
"Almost one year…! Last time we tried to figure out something about the guy was in the last summer, when I'd gone overseas… Seeing what happened later on then it's no wonder we forgot… Devil. Dr. Lartes is totally right on that. What does Mr. Sponsor suggest we do?"
"He hasn't brought up the topic. Mr. Sponsor seems to have been involved in some complicated investigation to find the origin of some drug smuggling in the Bermudas and Dr. Lartes wants to wait some days before bringing up the topic. We don't need Mr. Sponsor to get a stress attack and work without sleeping days on a row, right?"
"Of course, of course. We all agree on that, Chief."
"He's made some preliminary investigations but no – one seems to have noticed an unusual withdrawal or transfer of money in bank accounts: he tried looking in some Ameroupe states because he's got the hunch that Keitai fled there to get further away from us. He could've changed his look with ease so… There was no point in forwarding any photographs to customs officers or police."
"Indeed."
"The mysterious man that Colonel Botos spotted in Oosaka last year who seemed to have some involvement with Mr. Sponsor hasn't been sighted again either. He must've moved. But without knowing their name to begin with or any aliases… We didn't know where to start looking at: Colonel Botos spent much of the summer hunting for his trail but had to give it up in the end."
"Ah. Hence why he looked so worn out when I came back from overseas last summer…" Mr. Denpa rubbed his chin.
"So? What do we do? Do we focus on Keitai?"
"I'd rather do that. "Zeta" doesn't seem to want to bother us anymore so we can hunt for that sneaky fugitive… Maybe Colonel Talos could keep an eye out once a week to see if "Zeta" made any move or has made their presence known somewhere…"
"That's good. I'll go tell him right away."
"There's no trouble over at Akihara Town?"
"No. According to Agents Umi and Raion everyone is focused in the upcoming exams and Bubble Man keeps on selling scams there and there…" He checked some notes he carried in a clipboard and shrugged his shoulders.
"That's good. But we can't lower the guard. Maybe Keitai is hoping to stir up trouble there if we lower the guard too much and that's why he's waited so long."
"We can't ignore the possibility. It'd be a challenge to us: that man is too dangerous to leave them be."
"Indeed. Well then. I'll be excusing myself. I've got to set the machinery on: the sooner the better."
"Of course, Chief. I shall forward this to Mr. Admin and wait for his opinion: he shall order us what resources to allocate in this investigation or, rather, this manhunt."
"True."
Chief Lezareno stepped out into a corridor and sighed as he lowered his right arm and brought the right hand to his forehead as if being tired or nervous.
"How could we forget? Then again… Not like last autumn and winter were quiet, either… And more recently… The incident with "Zeta"… We're not perfect. I know that. But, nevertheless… One can't help but feel guilty at overlooking the topic…" He muttered.
He drew a Samsung GT-6500 smart-phone and quickly dialed a number as he waited for the elevator to come: the floor panel showed that this was the 10th floor of the building.
"Colonel Talos? It's time to start the operation." He announced to his interlocutor.
"Excellent, Comrade. Let us begin. We cannot lower the guard." A man's voice replied.
17:27 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Ah! Senior! I'm lucky."
"What's the matter, sensei?"
"I need a hand with transporting a couple crates from the chemistry lab to the storage room. Ooyama is sweeping the warehouse and I was looking for someone else who could lend me a hand. It's just 10 minutes. Could you help me out?"
"Roger. 10 minutes won't make any difference. I'll call my brother and tell him to go on ahead."
"Sorry for the bother, really. But since the new replacement stools have come then the old ones will be stored in the basement until we find a moment to bring them to the junkman's."
"No problem, sir… Let's see… What's App… "I'm going to help the P. E. teacher with a crate. 10 minutes. Go on ahead. And tell the misters as well…"… that's it. Let's go."
"Roger. This way."
Saito had come out of the restroom in his classroom's floor when the P. E. teacher walked down the corridor from the left and stopped: he looked relieved to have found him and asked him for a helping hand so Saito drew his PET (colored green and while) and sent a message to Netto before following the teacher.
"Hmmm? Wait a min." He suddenly seemed to smell something and called out for Saito to wait.
"Roger, sir."
The teacher spotted a badly closed door on the right side of the corridor: some hushed voices could be heard inside.
"Oh come on." He grumbled.
He pulled it open in a violent manner and exposed two 4th year students who'd been smoking cigarettes.
"What the hell are you doing, kids?"
"YIKES!"
"Ya wanna smoke so badly go outside!"
Both ran out and the teacher opened one of the corridor's sliding windows to ventilate it: he rolled his eyes and Saito didn't seem surprised at what had happened.
"They gotta believe it's funnier to do it inside and in secret, huh? Those overseas college soap operas… Bad influence, really… Let's just get to the Chemistry Lab. It's always key-locked so there's no danger of those idiots igniting something by accident."
Saito and he resumed walking and climbed the main stairs to the 3rd floor to then turn left and down a corridor: they reached a door labeled "CHEM LAB" and he took out the keys.
"Turns out the Chemistry teacher doesn't stay past lunch time and charged me with this… Could've asked another teacher to lend him a hand, really… That guy…" He grumbled.
He unlocked the door: the lab had three desks with two rows of 5 stools each: there were 4 cupboards taking up the left wall's length and each of them was locked with a padlock: the right wall had a work space with granite surface and two sinks with their faucets: the south wall had two sliding windows which looked out into the west side of the school's perimeter.
"There: those are the boxes!"
He signaled two wooden boxes piled one atop the other and having the label "STOLEN STOOLS" on them: both frowned upon seeing it and the teacher rushed over there.
"What the… Someone wrote the original label over with a red crayon: some student of the morning class…?"
"Hmmm… I think that, on Tuesdays, the 3rd year students come here for their 2-hour class…" Saito frowned and tried to recall.
"Sheesh. What's with the discipline?"
"It's cracking away, I'm afraid, sir."
"Sure thing. Things were far more serious 20 years ago. I agree that corporal punishment is illegal and abolished but one should be more disciplined and remember that what they do here is to build the foundations to their future, not to play."
"Indeed, sir."
"Anyway. My bad. I tend to babble in a rush and involve others in my complaints. Let's just tackle these: I'll pick the first box and you then pick the second one. Wait a couple minutes to put some distance between the both of us." The teacher instructed.
"Roger, sir."
The teacher's iPhone buzzed and he drew it out.
"What? The math teacher? What does he want? Wait a minute. I'm going to reply to this call. Could you pick the top box and place it on the ground in the meanwhile?"
"Understood."
Saito left his backpack atop a stool and picked one crate to lower it as the teacher rushed out and began to talk in a lowered tone of voice with the Math teacher: Saito calmly carried the box and placed it on the ground a few centimeters to the left of the main one: he shrugged and looked out through the window to see how the students were walking away and heading to their homes.
"Oh well. I'll soon be done with this. But I'll agree in that discipline is being ignored nowadays. Maybe I should remind Netto – kun about its importance one of these days too." He calmly muttered.
He accidentally hit a plastic pot with a loose cap and which was placed to his right, on the window shelf, with his elbow: it hit the ground and Saito suddenly felt some dizziness and nausea hitting him all of a sudden: before he could react he fainted and hit the floor…
17:48 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Oi! Senior! Wake up! Are you alright?"
"U-unh… Huh…? What…?"
"Calm down. Don't rush it."
"W-what happened, sir?"
"Oh. You just happened to drop a bottle with chloroform which is part of the lab's materials…"
"Ah! Hence why…"
"I think one of those 3rd year students set it up in purpose like that taking profit of the teacher's distraction."
"Sheesh. They go too far, even."
Saito slowly woke up when he heard the P. E. teacher calling out to him: he got into his fours and then slowly rose to his full height while leaning on the shelf: the window was open to ventilate the lab and the bottle had already been sealed and placed inside of a plastic container: Saito groaned while the teacher looked slightly annoyed.
"Don't bother with the crate. I'll have Ooyama carry it. You just get to your home and see you around."
"Roger, sir."
Saito walked off the lab after picking his backpack and while pressing his right hand against his forehead as if to shake away the dizziness and nausea of the chloroform.
Sheesh. Hard to believe, huh? No, I don't mean the accident. That can happen to everyone. But I didn't think that my brain would react like a normal brain when you inhale chloroform. Guess Vadous – san wanted to make it as realistic as possible to allow me to feel like a full-fledged human and not like some cyborg… Oh well.
DAN – DIN – DEN – DON – DUN!
What's with this melody? Mail? Sheesh. I suspect Netto – kun switched it just to troll me. I'll have to pull his ears. And it's just the YouTube upload notification, anyway.
"Yo! Senior. Did ya dream of fleeing Zekroms and Reshirams and Kyurems tonight?" Forte suddenly showed up in the PET.
"Sheesh. Forte. The last thing I need now is your trolling. Why don't you go beat some Heel Navis overseas? Or challenge that Ms. Millionaire and her Navi, Snake Man."
"Who'll be eternally overshadowed by Solid Snake?" He laughed at his own joke.
"How funny. Tell that to Hiro, will ya? He's the MGS fan. Or Zarashe – kun in Kyoto, too."
"And our beloved, beloved precious."
"Lord of the Rings next? Sheesh. Go play some game. Try to beat Metroid Zero Mission in Hard Mode and in less than 6 hours. That a challenge so get your cloak on the move, Mr. Desperado."
"Desperado, eh? Guess that I look like one. Now we need the Marshal to come arrest me next. Heh, heh, heh! Guess that'd be Blues – sama and his ronin katana."
"What did you say?" Blues' annoyed voice asked close by.
"Whoa. What timing, really." Forte gasped.
"Don't mind the guy, Blues." Ijuuin Enzan commanded on the background with a sigh.
"Yo! Ijuuin. Did someone sneak into your office to get a sign?"
"Why should anyone, anyway?"
"You never know. It's a secret to everybody!"
"Huff. I fail to see the point. If there's any to begin with."
"Ask Blues' lovely twin bro."
"HMPF!"
"Heh. Dropped off the road into another one 3 levels below: guess he doesn't want to have anything to do with our good old fellow Red Sword, then…" He chuckled.
Saito ignored that and quickly made his way home: he unlocked the door with his key and stepped in.
"I'm home~!"
"Hey! Niisan. Guess what?" Netto called out from the upper floor and sounded up to something.
"Tell me when I get up there." Saito settled.
He took out the shoes, put them on the shoes' cupboard and then put on a couple of slippers: he climbed up into their bedroom and left his backpack atop his bed, right to Netto's: Netto was sitting on his bed and looking at the display of his Link PET which showed Ganondorf dancing to the rhythm of some disco music.
"Sheesh. Some Ganondorf parody? What about the homework, huh? We gotta finish it soon and focus on the upcoming exams!" Saito scolded with some annoyance.
"…club in which ya go all out with your "someone" and…" Forte was whispering to Enzan in the meanwhile.
"Oh come on! That Sigaano guy was the one saying that to catch me with the guard down to begin with… Just leave me alone and go rip sprites outta some game to face them!" Enzan exasperatedly told him.
"Sure, VP – sama~… Well then! See ya round the roundabout!"
"Sheesh."
"So! Senior. Back to our topic… Do ya think Ijuuin wants to have an affair with Junior?"
"Enzan? The guy's too cold and distant for that. He'd just use me and throw me like a broken suit."
"Oho. So ya got to your home, eh? Good, good. And from the tone of it I guess it's already happened and I'm slow on catching up. Maybe I need to install Catch Them All App by BM Workshops?"
"That's lame. Even for me." Netto grumbled.
"Oh the random blowing and running moods!"
"Patent it for some RPG game already."
"Delighted, my precious! Jackson's busy filming there in New Zealand and I can't wait to see the end result… Let's see if good old Gollum will look younger or not although 60 years surely don't make much of a difference for the guy. We want fish, my precious!"
"Yeah, yeah. Just go already."
"And next time I'll install a better firewall."
"Heh, heh, heh. OK, then… Let's go, Gospel Jr."
"Grawl."
"What? Ah! Ya wanna eat some Spark Bees? Let's go: and hope their honey is as delicious as the real world one's."
There was a hardly muffled giggle as Forte (who'd actually left the PET a while ago and was just using a voice-only band) disconnected: both sighed in relief.
"Finally. Some peace." Saito sighed in relief.
"Wouldn't you know? Dekao tried to sneak away but the P. E. teacher caught the guy and had him go back to work."
"You needn't tell me. I saw a couple of 4th year guys smoking inside of the cleansing equipment storage cupboard."
"Really… What's with the school? It's gone mad?"
"No. People have lost all sense of discipline, sadly enough."
"Discipline, huh? Sounds like it, yeah. Papa tends to bring it up too."
"Speaking of which… How many days has he been engrossed over at the Science Labs this time around?"
"I think that… 11 days?" Netto frowned.
"11, huh. I wouldn't be surprised if they become 21."
"We could drop by and do an express visit on the weekend before resuming studying, no?"
"That's not a bad idea, either."
"Alright. Let's get to work."
"Sure. The sooner the better."
Both opened their backpacks and took out their materials which they placed on their sides of the desk: they immediately focused on working on them and worked on them for a while.
"I'm home~!" Haruka called out from the ground floor.
"Welcome back." Both calmly called back.
"Oh. You're studying? Alright. I'll try not to be too noisy. I went to see Yuuichirou – san. He'll be coming on Friday!"
"Whoa." Both whistled in surprise.
"Tee, heh, heh. Yuuichirou – san can get nostalgic, too."
"As expected of Mama… Right?" Netto whispered.
"As expected of Mama, alright." Saito confirmed.
"Oh well! I'll tune into my favorite series."
"Let's get this finished. We're three quarters done, anyway."
"Sure. I feel like we'll beat the exams."
"It's good to be optimistic. But we mustn't get confident." Saito nodded in agreement.
"Alright! Let's go for it!"
21:58 PM (Japan Time)…
"… See? All's set, my buddy! Piece of a cake!"
"For the time being. For now."
"What's with that skepticism?"
"One thing you learn once you spend so many years into the deal is to be skeptical when things go too well. One should always look ahead to some trouble. A lesson I learnt last summer…"
"But that's ya and we're talking about me, right?"
"Hmpf. Yeah. Oh well. If it goes well, then it'll be a good blow to their morale. If not… Meh. They'll regret underestimating and forgetting about me altogether."
The unidentified conspirer was back at talking with their accomplice or contact over the phone: the conspirer sounded confident yet the contact was cold, skeptical and sounded hostile as well.
"Che. So you mean that you don't give a crap for my idea?"
"Oh no. Your idea is good. It's to be expected from you. But I'm being careful. You've only finished Phase 1. We're pending to see if the remaining 3 "Incidents" happen as you predict they'll happen. I won't be convinced until I see the end result."
"Heh! And once we're done with the heating up… There'll be the main dish! If I can't get the gold I'll have enough with the silver. But I'm confident that they won't see it coming."
"That depends. There could be many factors outside your control which could screw up the whole deal. I'm off."
"Hmpf! Fine. Go off and just admit that you don't have enough ambition unlike me… I'll make those "Committee" guys FEAR me!"
"Were it so easy. Were it so easy…"
The conspirer laughed while the contact remained silent…
