Chapter 4

Tennoji and I arrive at the university that the man we questioned told us about. We know that Mikami should be in class right now, and we're were here to find him. It was a weekday afternoon so the campus was bustling with students.

I saw a group of three students stood around each other talking.

"Did you register for next semester yet?" A student said to one of their friends.

"Crap! I still have to turn in that report!" a second one said.

"You can write your thesis on that!" a third said.

I couldn't help but smile, it felt like I was back at University again. I was only a student three years ago, before I went into the army. It felt like a life time ago.

"Yo." Tennoji said loudly.

"Ow!"

"Quite makin' that dumb face." He said.

I spun around when Tennoji hit me on the back to the head and I glared at him. He looked down at me with an amused looked on his face.

"I parked the car around the back." He said.

"Fine whatever." I said.

He didn't have to hit me.

"What were you thinking about just now?" he asked. "You looked like you were hard-core day dreaming."

"I was just thinking of my time when I was in university, before I went into the army. This campus reminds me of my old campus." I said.

"Pfft. I didn't go to college, so I guess I don't get it. On the real though, is college actually like, you know, just a bunch of hooking up and blowing off classes?"

"Who told you that?" I asked.

"Did you have a boyfriend in college?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Whaaat! So some dude legit liked you and dated you?! I wonder what he looked like? Who asked who out? Where did you go on dates? Why'd you break up?"

I was taken back by his sudden line of questions and I didn't know how to answer.

"Why do you want to know? Why are you suddenly so interested in my love life?"

"I'm just curious." He said.

"Really? Well how about you? Why don't you tell me about your love life." I said.

"Me?"

"Yeah. I bet girls really like you." I said sarcastically.

"Yeah obviously. I mean, if they didn't like me, who would they like?" he said with a smug smile on his face.

How arrogant could you get?!

"But I gotta say, I straight up don't understand chicks. Chicks be showing up at my place like, 'Do you really love me?' and then they just disappear." He said.

"Disappear? Are you some kind of serial killer? But seriously though, you're probably just giving them mixed signals." I said.

"Hmm." He said thoughtfully.

He was disagreeing, he seemed to be genuinely listening to my advice. He was quite hot, I found it hard to believe that girls didn't like him but he probably scared them off with his personality. College girls had been checking him out ever since we walked onto the campus.

"Anyway. How'd we get onto this subject?" he asked. "You never talk about stuff like this."

"You started it."

He then looked away and I followed his gaze to a nearby building.

"Isn't that the building over there?" he asked. "Building #9, Engineering. Yep that's it. Let's hit it up."

I nodded and we walked to the building together.

Tennoji lead the way, he sat right in the front of the lecture hall.

"Tennoji." I hissed.

"Shh! Stone, don't be so loud."

"But we can't sit right at the front."

Talking about not being subtle.

"It's fine, the lecture hall is huge." He said. "Besides, I can't see shit from outside."

We both sat down in the corner, the lecture hall was full of people. No one seemed to notice us.

"You stick out like a sore thumb." I said.

"Why? Because I'm tall?"

"Yeah and you dress weird." I said.

"How do I dress weird?" he asked.

"Hey you two!" the lecture shouted and pointed at us.

"Yes?" I asked.

We must've been talking too loud, the professor stopped his lecture and everyone turned to look at us.

"You can remain seated. Please explain Fermat's Last Theorem to the class. You, redhead."

"Me?" Tennoji asked surprised. "Stone, what's a Fermat? Is that a person's name?"

"What you asking me for?" I said.

"What's wrong? I discussed it last it in last week's lecture." The professor said.

"Yeah.. Fermat said.. uh.. I think Fermat worked really hard." Tennoji.

I covered my mouth with my hand to muffle a snigger, of all the things to say he said that.

"I'm sure he did, but what I'm asking is, how did he work hard, and to what end?" the professor asked not looking amused.

"Um well.."

This wasn't good, if things continued like this our cover would be exposed. We had to get out of here.

"Excuse me, I just realized that I'm in the wrong class." I said loudly.

"Me to!" Tennoji said.

"You kids are useless. You're supposed to be juniors; you should be able to find your own class by now. And you up there! You've been sleeping this whole time. You! Wake up the kid next to you!"

"Hey, Mikami. The teacher says to wake up." A student said.

Me and Tennoji both gasped and exchanged looks before we looked up at the lecture hall.

"Mikami!" a student said shaking him.

"Hm? What's going on?" a guy said as he woke up.

He looked really creepy, there was something about his eyes that I didn't like. He had bright blonde hair, he wore a black top with a purple shirt on top.

We both took a glance at Mikami as we left the classroom. Could he really be a bomber? A college kid?

When we got outside, Tennoji turned and faced me.

"Stone, did his face trigger any memories?" he asked.

"He looked like a normal college kid. I don't think he was the one, I just can't imagine that a kid like him would do something like that." I said.

"I wouldn't say that. I've worked a lot of cases. You'd be surprised what totally 'normal' looking kids, housewives, and office workers are capable of. You can't be swayed by what he looked like." He said.

I nodded but my gut told me that he didn't do it.

We waited by the entrance to the building, when the class ended, we spotted Mikami in the crowd of students.

"Tennoji." I said and pointed.

"I see him."

"What should we do? Talk to him?"

"Not yet, we don't have any proof. Let's follow him and see what we can find out first." He said.

Mikami walked by himself, he didn't talk to any of the other kids. In order to avoid being noticed, we put some distance between ourselves and him.

"You've got a heathy appetite, Stone." Tennoji said.

"I do?" I asked.

"I've never seen a girl eat a big plate of curry like that before." He said.

We were sat in the canteen eating lunch with the rest of the students.

"My body needs energy to run." I said.

"Well, you're not fat so go for it, I guess." He said.

"You eat a lot too. Pork cutlet on rice and pork cutlet curry. You must really like pork cutlets." I said.

"The tigers ate pork cutlet the night before the won the championship. I've been eating pork cutlets when I want to win ever since then."

"Fair enough." I said.

"I wonder if Mikami has any friends?" he said. "He's been alone this whole time."

I pretended to be absorbed in my food and steal a glance at Mikami. He was sat at a table, far away from anyone else and he was eating alone in silence. I then turned to the table next us and started speaking to one of the girls.

"Hey."

"Hey." She said.

"Do you know the boy sitting over there?" I asked.

"Him? Nope. Not at all." She said.

"He's so bland looking, I could have a class with him and not even notice." A second one said.

"Oh, ok." I said.

"But who cares about him? Your boyfriend is so cute!" the first one beamed.

"Boyfriend?" I questioned.

"You mean me?" Tennoji asked.

"Yep you. So hot. You're not a student here, are you? What do you do?" the second one asked.

Oh they mean Tennoji? I couldn't help but laugh, me and Tennoji together? Yeah right!

"I. uh.. I'm an employee organizer." Tennoji said.

"What in the world is that? Haha!" the first girl laughed.

"And what's that accent? Are you from Osaka?" the second asked.

"Osaka people are supposed to be funny right? Say something funny. Tell us a joke." The first on said.

"Aint nobody got time for that." He replied.

"Haha! That's really funny." The girl one laughed.

"Huh? That was an honest observation, not a joke." He said.

Ha! They were flirting with him and he didn't even realise it. Probably why he didn't get on well with girls. But he was smiling so he was enjoying himself. I didn't know he was even capable of being nice to girls, considering he's always mean to me.

"Stone, Mikami is leaving." He said.

I looked behind me, Mikami had finished eating and he was walking out of the cafeteria.

"Let's keep tailing him." Tennoji said.

We followed him out of the cafeteria. We tailed him right to a run-down industrial area. You could hear a pin drop, we were clearly the only people around here.

But why would he come here? Was his hideout here?

"This place reminds me of the location of the first bombing." I said.

"He could have a hideout around here." Tennoji said.

Mikami didn't seem to know these streets very well, he kept stopping to check buildings' addresses.

"He looks lost. Maybe it's a new hideout and he forgot how to get there?" I whispered.

"Maybe." Tennoji said. "Oh! He's coming this way!"

Mikami had turned around and he was walking towards us. He was going to bump into us and possibly recognize us from the university.

"We need to hide." I said.

"Crap.. there's nowhere to hide.. Stone, come here for a second."

Tennoji grabbed my hand and pulled me into the shadows, he pushed me up against a wall and embraced me hiding us from direct view.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Shh. Be quite. Pretend to be my girlfriend until he passes us by." Tennoji whispered in my ear.

I could hear Mikami getting closer. Tennoji pulled my head tight to his chest.

"Don't make a sound." Tennoji whispered.

Mikami glanced at us for a moment, but continued on his way, unconcerned about us.

I sighed with relief.

"Is he gone?"

"He's gone." I said.

"Where in the hell is he headed?"

I stood up straight and peered over Tennoji's shoulder, following Mikiami with my eyes.

"He went into the building across the street."

"Do you know what floor?"

"He took the external stairs to the third floor." I said.

"Ok." He said and loosened his arms.

We both glanced at each other, we were so close our noses were nearly touching. This felt so awkward.

"I..." Tennoji said, his face was bright red.

He rushed to step away from and looked down at the ground.

"Sorry." He said.

"It's ok, don't worry. He didn't see us so it's fine." I said and smiled at him.

"The third floor of the building across the street huh..." he walked off ahead of me, clearly embarrassed.

Why was he embarrassed? It's not like we kissed or anything. It was more awkward then anything or weird. I quickly followed him.

We were stood together in front of the door to a room. I could hear voices coming from inside.

"About the next bombing.." Mikami said.

"Get everyone together tonight at 09:00." A new voice said.

"We can all meet here, right?" Mikami asked.

Tennoji and I exchanged a look. We didn't say a word but we began to communicate with gestures and facial expressions.

(Let's go back to the 2nd unit) Tennoji said.

(Why?)

(We still don't have the evidence we need, and it sounds like the rest of their buddies will be coming later.)

He was right. I gestured "ok" and we tiptoed out of the building and hurried back to the 2nd unit.

"As you all know, Tennoji and Stone have located the bombers hideout. Everybody, get ready to move out." Kirisawa ordered.

"Yes sir!"

Everyone was on high alert. I just hoped that the guy who did the first bomb was there, I couldn't wait to get him behind bars. I wanted to arrest him myself.

Eiki then smiled at me "Freya, Yutaka, you guys are awesome. How were you able to tail Mikami all the way back to his hideout? If you have any tips on how to avoid being noticed, let me know."

I briefly glanced at Tennoji, his looked down at me and our eyes meet for a moment.

"Just normal stuff. Hid in the shadows when he walked passed. Nothing special." I said with a shrug.

Tennoji looked relieved at my response.

"Stone, you should write down your own debrief for today." Tennoji said.

"Ok." I said.

But he was fidgeting like he wanted to say something else, but he ended up going back to his seat in silence.

Oh well.

"Man, it's so hot outside today. Right? Don't you think it's hot?" he asked.

"Not really." Asano said.

Tennoji then started fanning himself with his notebook.

I sat down at my desk and started writing down my debrief report.