Chapter 1 - Orientation
7.30am
"….yes Sir, I'm very sorry…we would have informed you sooner but the incident was in early hours of the morning and we didn't want to disturb the Board of Directors until there was something to t…yes, we are monitoring the situation. Currently? As we understand it Subject 119 is down…yes that's him….a very serious fall it seems. Touch and go so I'm tol…It would be a shame yes. We will do all we can, both staff and funds are being diverted. We're well aware of the potential financial implica…yes, I'll see to it immediately. I'll make the call straight afterwards. Also….more pressingly I regret to inform that Subject 117 is…not following his usual routine. What I mean to say is that at 9am he's usually…no, we don't currently have contact with him. Yes, yes essentially he's missing Sir. About 12 hours if what I'm told is correct. I know I'm sorry. Yes sir…I'm sorry if my turn of phrase in this matter offends you. It was simply my intention to not unduly alarm the Board when it has b….I understand Sir, yes. I do appreciate the seriousness of losing 117, I promise you we will step up our efforts to re-establish contact. We'll pull out all the stops I assure you. Indeed. Goodbye Sir"
8.15am
Two screens alongside one another play simultaneous feeds of two near-identical classrooms. To the careful observer it would have appeared that one broadcast was paying homage to the other. Within a matter of seconds of each other both feeds showed around a dozen young men and women seated at cheap wooden desks reacting across the spectrum of shock and surprise to news being imparted to them out of shot of the discretely-installed CCTV above the main blackboard in each room. Shortly afterwards individuals are leaning left and right to their neighbours to compare notes on whatever this news was. Reactions range from a few non-committal shrugs sharply contrasting with handkerchiefs in quivering female hands wiping away tears. Arms are put around shoulders. Heads are shaken in disbelief. Heads are quietly bowed. Mobile phones are dialed. Texts are sent.
Elsewhere as this is taking place, a white coated man in his late 20s is sat on a swivel chair in a windowless room, head in one hand, the other drumming on the arm of the chair concentrating intently on the two screens to the middle and right along the top row of a bank of nine. In turn two more banks of nine monitors to his left and right go unnoticed as they broadcast feeds from various locations – an office, a library, a footpath, a swimming pool. Figures occasionally walk jerkily in and out of frame but it is only these two groups of students that holds the man's attention as he peers at each feed in turn for a few seconds akin to someone watching an extended tennis rally.
He searches for something he hopes he does not see nor does he ever wish to see. Not in these circumstances at least. A tell-tale movement, a sudden look of surprise from one of the young people in shot, anything out of place that might require him to pick up the telephone on the console and set a particularly exciting set of events in motion. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, it was too early as it was and his sleep was disrupted by the incident that cause him to be here scanning these monitors first thing.
It hadn't happened yet, but there had never been cause to report such distressing news to the whole student body before. There was no precedent, so all the more reason to maintain focus.
The minutes slide by and eventually the man leans back and stretches, confident that the danger of any immediate problem had passed. A short while later, as he hears a muffled bell ring and the students on the screen gradually begin to file out, he keeps a more relaxed eye on some of the other monitors.
His concentration on the monitors is only broken by the sound of a card being swiped and the whirring open of a lock. He tenses for a moment and looks with a slight air of worry in the direction of the door. He does not see the door however as cheap hastily-assembled plywood partitions running parallel to each wall surround him creating a internal corridor that circles the room, the gap between real wall and this false wall being only wide enough for one person to walk down.
There is a quick rap of knuckles on the plywood in a militaristic pattern, the recognition of this last-resort code causes all tension to subside.
"Good Morning Mutou."
"I've had better ones" grumbles a voice, the plywood partitions quivering slightly as the unseen second figure shuffles around to the gap in the far corner that allows access to the control room. The two-day-unshaven man of slender build in a dark brown suit of questionable fitting and comfort is greeted with a cheery smile and two mugs, one with "Yamaku Academy Alumni Association" and a coat of arms, the other bearing the slogan "Nurses do it with care."
"Coffee?"
"With a side order of valium if you have it Nurse."
The white-coated Nurse grins and handed over one of the mugs. "Sorry, only on prescription – shot of brandy if you like, purely medicinal of course."
"I wish I could, need a clear head today more than any day."
"So I heard. One flying the coop and one not flying at all."
Mutou looked sideways at his colleague wincing at the truthful but no less tasteless summation of events covering the last last 12 hours. He peered at some of the monitors. "Anything?"
The Nurse smiled and shook his head "Not a flicker according to these well-trained eyes."
A solemn nod from Mutou. "Nothing has manifested, that's good. I mean it was only a slim chance but this could have easily been the catalyst and then it really would have been the tin lid on this terrible start to the day."
"Having them all told at once was a risky move. Weren't you worried about some sort of chain reaction? I mean if one of them were to go off…"
"Better this than letting gossip run rings around the place and something kick in that we aren't prepared for. You know what we've been told If there's no possibly of prevention, go for containment."
"True enough, all hell could break loose if it was in the town or something and we didn't get there in time."
Nurse eyes moved to a feed from one of the main corridors, watching one girl's shoulders heave as she leaned against a notice board crying. His brow furrowed for a second and he moved closer to the screen looking for a sign beyond what would be a usual and appropriate display of emotions given the context ….nothing. She was fairly low risk from what he could remember of her file. He chose not to intrude on her grief any further and turned to Mutou.
"So was he close to any of them?"
"Who, 117?"
Nurse gave a derisive snort. "Dear God no, I meant 119."
"Well, he was observed with a few of the girls outside of class. We thought he might be quite the Casanova at first."
This raised a quizzical eyebrow "Hmmm?"
"No. We've been through this, they have that privacy at least. Anyway that's by the by, from what I have overheard one way or another he never got to the stadium, let alone to first base."
"Ouch, I hope the lad was good at coping with rejection."
"I didn't matter it seems, he never got close enough to do anything that required rejection."
"Double ouch."
"Indeed. Treble ouch if you include his little swandive earlier early this morning. Anyway, as you have probably guessed, I'm getting all sorts of heat from the Board about this. We need some information on 119 while he's not entirely under our jurisdiction."
"I only ask about his relationships because this one looks in a bit of a state." said Nurse pointing at the screen, Mutou followed his finger to the slim girl still struggling to compose herself. "No need to panic though, no signs of manifestation but I wondered if you might want to find out anything from her."
"What? Oh her? She was seen speaking to him a few times and she's in his class, but she's just a sensitive soul bless her."
"Have you spoken to any of his classmates at all yet?"
"I wanted them to process it all for a bit first, I don't want it to look like I'm interrogating them. A few of more empathic of them, like that one, will come to me just to talk about it in time I'm sure. Failing that I'm steer a couple of conversations around and see if I can dig anything up. The rapport's pretty good even if I do have to keep my distance."
Nurse slurped his coffee. "Seems sensible, this hands-off approach has worked up to now."
Mutou dropped an elbow onto the console, resting his chin in one hand while considering this. "Yes. Up to now. It's what might happen next that disturbs me."
"And whats that?"
"I don't know, that's what disturbs me. We have to be unobtrusive regarding 119 for a short while and a subject going off the radar screen completely is unprecedented". Mutou's hand slid over his eyes "And of all of them it just had to be him."
Mutou drew his hand slowly down his from his face as if trying to drag the tiredness and stress from his brain. If he was lucky, this was just going to be a long day, if he was unlucky…"You know what? Screw it, drop some brandy in there".
A smile flashed onto Nurse's face as he pulled a small hipflask from the pocket of his lab coat. "Just a drop, doctor's orders."
8.25am
The petite skittish girl that Mutou and Nurse had been casting a careful but unseen eye over in the corridor was taking a couple of deep breaths to try and contain the sobs that had prevented her from going to her first class of the day and took out a small hand mirror to check how red her eyes were.
Mirrors were not exactly Hanako's best friend. They were necessary, indeed mandatory, equipment of a girl of eighteen, but their use gave her reminders of why she was here in this place. She had plenty of reminders.
After considering it might be a good idea to splash some water on her eyes, out of habit she tilted her head and hooked a finger around long hair that covered the right side of her face like a curtain to glumly examine the scars usually hidden beneath. The patterns and puckering hadn't changed or improved since the final skin graft but nevertheless she chose to look for signs of reduction. It was a small thing to cling on to. And Hanako didn't have a whole lot to cling on to.
"Is that you Hanako?"
The mirror was snapped closed as quickly as Hanako was snapped from her thoughts. She turned to see her friend Lilly walking purposefully but carefully along the corridor moving her cane to and fro to detect obstacles and as a side-effect helping to clear a path for herself through the students still traversing the corridor making their way to class.
As there were a substantial number of blind and partially sighted students at Yamaku Academy, students moved out of the way with little ceremony. A couple of the less cultured male students slid to the side of the corridor and pressed themselves to the lockers like queuing traffic making way for an ambulance. A side effect of which meant they could spend time appreciating Lilly's statuesque frame and long blond tresses as she ambled by. A less desirable side effect was that Lilly caught one of them a nasty crack across the shins with her cane which seemed to have more weight to it than one might have expected.
Her mind occupied with wondering whether Lilly had taken what looked like revenge for being ogled and more pertinently how she knew she had reason to take any revenge as well as a little amusement at watching the previous enamoured male student limp away, Hanako realised she hadn't responded to the greeting "Oh hello Lilly. Over here. How did you know it was me?"
"I recognised your sniffing dear."
"Oh! I didn't even realise you could do that."
"Practice." Lilly said with a smile "I just have to focus a little more than normal. So I take it your class was told of the news? Are you OK? I have a spare handkerchief if you need one?"
Y-yes I'm fine I think, just a bit shaken up."
Lilly placed a reassuring hand on Hanako's shoulder. "Yes, A very distressing turn of events. My class are organising sending flowers and there's talk of a visit once he is stabilised. However as to not pile upset upon upset, I think this is a good opportunity for me to apologise to you for my behavior last night."
"What do you mean?". Hanako was genuinely confused by this, Lilly Satou losing her temper would be headline news. Inquiries would be held. She worried sometimes what happens when someone like Lilly bottled up their emotions all the time. Then she remembered that people probably asked each other the same question about her.
Lilly bowed deeply to Hanako "I was far too short with you after being woken up last night. My my, I can be so rough around the edges before my first tea of the day"
"It…it's OK."
"I feel terrible for not giving the events due attention at the time."
Hanako looked at the ground, feeling her own pang of guilt at her inaction. "Do you think they'll tell us how he's getting on?"
"I don't see why not, we can but ask."
Hanako absentmindedly picked at one of her shirt cuffs "I think I will ask Teacher about it and then go and see him as soon as it's possible."
"Good idea, I'll go and visit too – he will need all the support he can get. I'm sure he's being well looked after by the best people."
11.25am
Hisao awoke with a start and could see nothing but a blank ceiling and a lamp shining in his eyes, making him squint. He remembered rushing wind in his ears. And pain. And screaming. And more pain. And flashing lights. People barking things into walkie-talkies. And more pain. He wondered where he was, he wondered how he was able to actually be anywhere seeing as…
"Oh dear god the roof."
Gripped by panic and confusion. He tried to look around. He couldn't. His head was firmly held in place by something vice-like that he couldn't properly discern, but whatever it was, it was big enough in the way of what little peripheral vision he could have otherwise had.
He could look down. Barely. Two arms, two legs. He tried moving an arm to cover the light in his eyes. No joy. His heart rate jumped from idling to sprint. Was he paralysed? Was he locked in this body with only the basic function needed to stay alive? Was it just because he was strapped down? Then he start to panic about his heart. Which only made things worse…oh god he wasn't going to survive the fall just to have another h…
Hisao felt a pinprick in his neck and instantly his pulse started to settle down. A tsunami of relaxation hit him. Someone in this hospital was looking after him. This was good. He heard a reassuring voice as the needle was withdrawn.
"Take it easy man, you'll be of no use to anyone if your heart pops. I need you alive if I'm going to go through with this."
This was bad. This was very very bad.
"What the.." Hisao wanted his heart to race now, he wanted adrenaline to flood his system so he could struggle through his restraints and escape whatever bizarre nightmare this was. Because as he looked around he was damned sure he wasn't in any hospital and he was even more damned sure that he didn't want to receive medical treatment from…
"Kenji?!"
A mop of black hair slid into Hisao's limited field of vision, followed by a pair of glasses with frames like the bottom of beer bottles and a deeply unsettling grin. This was a bewildering sight in in isolation without the added comlication syringe he was holding. As the drugs flooded his system, Hisao's mind unfocused. Maybe it was for the best, he could formulate a plan later, because this wasn't going to get any less strange any time soon. Through the thickening drug-induced haze he could here Kenji rambling.
"Don't worry, I got this. I didn't mean it for it to be like this. I liked you man. I mean I still do. BAd taste to use the past tense there. But I'm a guy who thinks on his feet. I need to. Gotta move fast. Gotta keep 'em guessing. And I'm just...taking advantage of this situation. I've got plans for us Hisao, don't you worry. But they can wait, lots of planning to do before we strike. But first I'm gonna have to knock you out for a bit man. Before we both go to work, I gotta go to work. On you.
With that Kenji carefully pushed the syringe he had been waving around into one of the main veins in Hisao's left arm.
"Trust me man. You'll thank me when I'm done."
Kenji straightened up with a look of unshakable determination.
"They all will..."
KATAWA SHOUJO 2 – RISE OF KENJI
