Chapter 13:
"You´re late Kyon!"
It was the Sunday before the trip and we were all gathered in the usual spot for one reason.
"Man I can't believe this, we´re going to help you get the money for your trip, I even let you off our training today and you still have the nerve to be late."
The plan we came up during our meeting the other day was simple, since Haruhi really wanted to help us getting money for the trip, we decided it would be a bad idea to just solve everything by ourselves, so while the rest of the brigade convinced her to let them pay their share, I'm supposed to let her assist me with that.
"We wouldn´t have to do this if you didn´t destroyed my finances two Sundays in a row remember?"
Which is great for me since I'm still recovering from paying Index san's lunch a couple of weeks ago, not like the idea of owing Haruhi money is attractive in the slightest, but it's better than bankruptcy at the very least.
"Well that should teach you about being late!"
Sigh… "Whatever, so have you thought about how to get 40.000¥ in just one day already?"
Although judging by the how she looks so confident, that question is probably unnecessary.
"Of course, is pretty simple really, we´re going to earn it the old fashioned way… working!"
Huh… that´s it? No garage sale filled with crap that some crazy collector thinks it´s art and pays millions for, or stocks investments that get us tons of money but create a worldwide depression or anything?
"Yeah, I know that it´s weird for me to relay on such conventional methods, I was originally planning to do something a little more radical, but Kaori neesan convinced me I shouldn't do everything by myself and that we should solve this problem together."
"Of course Haruhi san! You can always rely on me, I wouldn´t be worthy of being called your sister if I couldn't do at least that much."
Kanzaki san seemed extremely proud when she said that, I suppose that if she really thinks Haruhi is her God, being considered a sister by her must be a huge deal.
"Thank you Kaori neesan! Well then… we get paid by the hour so there's no time to waste, let's go!"
"Where? You haven't told us what we are going to do yet."
"Oh yeah, We´ll be working at the café we always go to, I talked to the owner and he told me all his staff needed to take today off urgently for some reason, so I offered our services for minimum wage and a waitress uniform for Mikuru chan!"
Good to see she still got her priorities straight, still… Kanzaki san and Asahina san wearing waitress uniforms, I can't…
"Move it Kyon! We´ll leave you behind if you don´t!"
Huh? Suddenly I noticed everyone had already left.
"Hey, wait for me!"
About half an hour later:
After arriving at the café the owner quickly gave us a short speech and our uniforms for us to change, apparently he was going to take the day off as well so we had to run the whole place by ourselves… I don't get it, how can anyone be so carefree about his business? It makes no sense!
Anyway, I quickly got into the dressing room to change myself and noticed a familiar tune coming from the room besides this one.
"Why do these skirts have to be so short? It feels like everyone can see my…"
"Come on Mikuru chan, stop moving around so much, I can't dress you properly if you don't stay still!"
"Suzumiya san stop, I can do it by myself!"
It's been a while since I last heard that.
"Haruhi san, please calm down, I'm sure Mikuru would be more cooperative if you were a little nicer to her."
"Ok ok Kaori neesan, I'll try to be gentler. Mikuru chan, button up the rest of your shirt while I take care of everything below ok?"
"Yeah…"
Oh well… I suppose that´s an improvement at least.
I got out of the room when I finished and found Ichigo san and Nagato already dressed in their uniforms; I have to admit they both look quite lovely on it as it makes then even cuter than they already are.
"Ready for work girls?"
"Yeah, Yuki already uploaded the data about running a café into the network, so this should be no trouble at all… Misaka says confident."
"I see we're counting on you then."
Both girls nodded as the door of the women's dressing room opened and Haruhi together with 'the two angels' as Taniguchi calls them appeared… god they look amazing with their uniforms on, seriously is stuff like this that make me grateful of all the crazy things that happen in my life… if only their skirts were as short as Kanzaki san made them out to be.
"Kyon! Snap out of it already, we have work to do!"
"Oh yeah sorry…"
I turned my attention towards Haruhi who was staring at me angrily as usual; still taking a good look at her I must admit that she looks just as stunning as everyone else, have to give credit where is rightly deserved.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing…"
Before opening the café, Haruhi gathered the brigade to assign everyone a role for the whole day.
"Ok guys, this the plan: Yuki you'll be in charge of the kitchen and Ichigo chan will help you, Koizumi kun you'll take care of the customers on the bar of the café, Kaori neesan, Mikuru chan you'll be the waitresses and I'll be at the cash register. "
"What about me?"
"Oh yeah sorry Kyon, you're going to be the utility man, so it's your job to help with anything I ask you to do."
So basically I get to be ordered around by her all day; that´s no different of what I usually do, somehow this doesn't even feel like work anymore… hurray! Oh who am I kidding? Let's just get on with it.
Noon:
"Kyon go clean up table 5!"
"Right away!"
"Kyon someone spilled a drink near the entrance, clean it up!"
"I'm on it!"
"Kyon go check if the men's bathroom has enough supplies!"
And so our wonderful day taking care of the café started with me being exploited for minimum wage, which is actually an improvement because I'm actually getting paid for this… anyway the place was unusually crowded today since the rumors of the new waitresses spread like wildfire and everyone came to take a look.
"Kyon go take this order to the idiot on table 2."
"Me again? Isn't that a job for the waitresses?"
"Kaori neesan has her hands full with her tables and Mikuru chan is taking pictures with the customers on table 7."
"What?"
"Well, a lot of customers were demanding to take pictures with the cute waitresses and making a huge fuss, so I tried to scared them off by charging them an arm and a leg for it, but the whole thing surprisingly backfired and they actually paid me double I asked… so I figured out I might as well take the chance and run a little business on the side, you know what they say ´Capitalism, Ho! ´"
Just who the heck says that?
"Don't worry I talked to them and they said it's ok, not to mention they're just normal pictures like the ones you'd take in an amusement park, I'd never let anyone take embarrassing pictures of my neesan or…"
Immediately she took a ballpoint pen and threw it with perfect precision towards the back of the restaurant hitting a customer in the arm, making him drop a camera he was trying to sneak below the table closest to Asahina san.
"For the last time! Underskirt pictures are NOT allowed! You try that again and I'll kick you out!"
The guy quickly picked up his camera and placed back into his bag, understandably scared of the little death threat he just got.
"Man these people are so annoying! This is like the 5th time something like that happens."
I'm guessing embarrassing pictures are only good if she takes them… still I can't help but think this is an improvement and that she's not as crazy as before; it seemed Kanzaki san being her role model was really starting to show, else Asahina san would be working on her bunny suit costume by now.
"Anyway… what was I saying? Oh Yeah! Kyon take this order to the idiot on table 2."
"Understood!"
Well, time to take another cup of coffee to 'the idiot on table 2'.
"Here you go Taniguchi, cup number 9."
"What? You again Kyon? I don't get it, how many of these things I have to ask to get Kaori chan or Asahina san to bring it to me? Suzumiya said you can only take pictures with the waitress that serves your table and no offence but you're not what I had in mind."
None taken, anyway he looked at Haruhi with anger who answered him by sticking out her tongue.
"Mmmm! You're 100 cups too early before I let my neesan anywhere near you!"
What's with her being so overprotective all of the sudden?
"Well you heard her Kyon… keep them coming, there's still 81 cups left to go!"
It's 91 actually… Idiot!
"Kyon take care of the customers that just arrived!"
Why does it feel like I'm only one working in this place? Anyway I grabbed a couple of menus and quickly moved towards the entrance.
"Welcome, would you prefer a table or to sit on the bar?"
I looked at the customers in front of me; one was a guy with pitch black hair and an oversized shirt while the other one was a cute girl with short purple hair.
"We'll take a table thank you."
"Understood…"
"Kyon san!"
Huh? I turned around and noticed Kanzaki san was right behind me.
"I'll take care of these customers."
"Sure as you wish."
"Thank you."
She quickly guided them towards one of the tables she was serving and immediately after that the door's bell rang again and I turned around to greet the new… oh god not them!
"Hi Kyon kun, I didn't know you guys had jobs here."
"Good morning Tsuruya san, we're currently helping the owner of this place since he had to take the day off."
"I see that's wonderful, by the way allow me to introduce you to my new friends."
Of course she wasn't alone, together with her was not only the girl with the Japanese priestess outfit, but also another girl that I haven't seen before, if I had to describe her I'd say she was pretty but for some reason I can't quite point out lacked sex appeal.
"Himechii, Seichan this is the guy I was talking about the other day."
"Himegami Aisa."
"And I'm Fukiyose Seiri, it's a pleasure."
Both girl bowed politely.
"Same here I'm…"
"Kyon stop chitchatting and get back to work already!"
Sigh… "Kyon'll do, anyway would you girls prefer a table or to sit in the bar?"
"A table please."
"Understood, please follow me."
I quickly guided them towards the nearest empty table and helped them sit.
"Well here's the menu and…"
"I want hamburgers."
"And I want smoked cheese!"
"Just a health drink please, I'm not hungry."
That was fast.
"Excellent, I'll bring them right away."
Oh well, time to go to the kitchen to place the order.
"Give me as much hamburgers and smoked cheese as you can please!"
I just got a nod of acknowledgement and didn't even have to wait 30 seconds before I had a tray with a couple of perfectly grilled hamburgers and a plate with several blocks of smoked cheese decorated with the utmost attention to detail; the whole thing looks so magnificent it's like it belongs on a 5 star restaurant.
"Sorry I forgot I need a health drink too."
Another nod and 4 seconds later I had a glass with the right amount of ice, a piece of lemon that was just the perfect size and a little umbrella on top of it, besides a bottle of a weird and expensive looking health drink I've never seen before; the thing looks so professional you'd think I'm serving some exotic cocktail.
"Thanks you two, keep up the good work!"
And there goes the third nod of 'you're welcome', you know I must admit at first I thought it was a bad idea to have Ichigo san helping out on the kitchen, I mean we could definitely use another waitress and Nagato can take care of this place by herself (actually I think she's slowing down so Ichigo san can keep up with her), but now that I see those two working together I can't help but think that they're actually enjoying this.
Ok, now to take this order… funny once I got near the table I couldn't help but notice the atmosphere there was a little tense.
"There you go girls."
"Thank you."
Only Fukiyose san answered me, the other two were just staring intently at each other.
"Could you girls drop that already? Who cares which is tastier between hamburgers and smoked cheese? Just let it go!"
Complete silence, they didn't even give signs of acknowledging what she just said.
"You know, if it bothers you that much, why don't you just do this?"
She quickly grabbed some of the cheese from Tsuruya san's plate and placed it on Himegami san's hamburgers; as soon as she did that the stare between the girls was broken as they slowly moved to grab one of the burgers each and reluctantly gave it a bite.
"Genius."
"Seichan you're so smart!"
"I'm not! Now come on, eat up before they get cold."
The girls were happy to oblige as Fukiyose san took a long sip at her drink, good to see there's someone normal on that group.
"Kyon go check if the women's bathroom has enough supplies!"
"Right a… you do that!"
A few hours later:
It was almost time to close down the place and I finally managed to take a break thanks to the slave driver being in the bathroom, so I sat in the bar because it was empty compared to the rest of the café.
"How is it going Kyon kun."
"Well… I'm nowhere near as tired as I thought I would be, but still the whole day has been pretty busy with so many customers and Haruhi yelling at me every 5 seconds."
"I see, I was the complete opposite, the bar was really easy to handle, most customers preferred a table and the ones that sat here were pretty nice."
I can see why they would prefer a table…
"Could I get another cup of English tea and the check please?"
"Right away sir!"
The customer asking Koizumi for tea was the only other person sitting on the bar right now, he was a really large man with brown hair and blue clothes, he kind of looks like a foreigner, but it's hard to say since he's wearing a hat that makes difficult to see his face.
"She's quite a hard boss to please isn't she? That ribbon wearing girl."
Once he noticed I was looking at him he tried to start a conversation.
"Yeah I guess so, nothing I can't handle though."
"I see that's pretty impressive, it's rare to see such a hard working young man in this age."
"Actually I don't work here, I'm just filling in for someone today; the thing is that I'm kind of used to having her ordering me around."
"Used to? Is she your girlfriend or something?"
Huh, does it really look like that on the outside?
"Oh sorry, that was pretty rude of me asking such personal things to someone I just met."
"No not at all, I was just surprised at your question; but nope, she's not my girlfriend, we're just friends I guess."
"I see, she does have this certain aura around her, so I can see why you'd want to follow her…"
"Huh? What do you mean sir?" Funny I think I've heard someone saying something like that before.
"Never mind me; please forget I said anything… Anyway sorry to distract you from your work, I'm sure you're busy and have better things to do than to talk to a curious customer."
"Not at all Mr.…"
"I'm William Orwell, nice to meet you."
"I see Mr. Orwell, nice to meet you too, I'm… "
"Kyon go take the idiot on table 2 his check, tell him we're about to close."
Sigh…
"You should do what your boss says; I wouldn't want you to get in trouble because of me."
"Yeah sorry."
Anyway I picked up the little plate with the check on it and took it to the idiot on table 2.
"There you go Taniguchi; we're going to close down soon so I need you to pay up."
"What? That's not fair! There were only 3 cups left, come on Kyon you can't do this to me!"
You know for some reason I'm feeling compassionate today.
"Ok, but you owe me one… Kanzaki san, could you do me a favor please?"
She turned around when she heard me as she was cleaning up the table right besides this one.
"Yeah sure Kyon san, what is it?"
"Could you please take this check and place it on this table?"
She looked at me understandably confused with my request.
"Eh... sure!"
She picked up the little plate I had in my hands and placed it right in front of Taniguchi.
"Is that it?"
"Yeah, sorry to bother you with something so strange all of the sudden."
"Never mind that, by the way could you please tell Haruhi san that I need to take a break after I finish with table 3? I'll be going out for a little while."
"Sure."
"Thanks."
She made a little bow and went back to her duties.
"So Taniguchi, are you happy now?"
Why am I asking that? The guy is practically crying of happiness.
"Thank you Kyon!"
Then he looked at the check.
"I'm going to have to eat cup noodles for lunch during the next 2 weeks, I don't even have money for the pictures anymore… but it was still worth every penny."
Isn't he the saddest person you've ever seen?
"Kyon go take out the garbage!"
I'm so going to have nightmares about this later on.
"Right away! By the way Kanzaki san told me to tell you she's going to take a little break after she finishes with the table she's on right now."
"Sure no problem, we're about to close anyway."
"Can I take one too?"
"No!"
It was worth a try, oh well off to get the garbage, I'm supposed to throw it out on a place near the back of the building so I had to go out the back door and walk along a little corridor to find the container that was right at the end to the left.
"There… done!"
Well now that's taken care of, time to go back and wash my hands like crazy…
"Man, I've never expected to see the former Supreme Pontiff dressed like this."
"Shut up!"
Huh? Kanzaki san?
"I've even got this picture to prove it; I can't wait to show this to everyone else…"
I heard the sound of paper being ripped to shreds followed by a flash of light and the faint smell of something being burned.
"Hey! That thing cost more than the food we ate!"
"I don't care! If you have time to worry about that, then just tell me the info you got for me and go away already!"
"Ok sorry! Didn't think you'd get so sensitive over that… Anyway it seems the Roman Catholic Church found out about our 'Goddess' already and we have no idea about what they're planning to do about her, so you need to be extremely careful from now on."
"Tsk... Well it was bound to happen eventually so I guess there's no helping it."
"Yeah I suppose you're right… "
It seems that she's talking to someone, oh well it doesn't look like she's in trouble and this doesn't sound like something I should be listening to, so I think it's better if I just…
"Who are you?"
Unfortunately my plan to just leave the scene was interrupted when I felt a cold metallic blade getting dangerously close to the side of my neck.
"Huh? What's wrong Itsuwa? Did you find something?"
Immediately after two persons appeared in front of me, one of them was obviously Kanzaki san and together with her was one of the customers we had this afternoon, the guy with the oversized shirt.
"This person was eavesdropping on us."
"Hey! I wasn't eavesdropping; I was just…"
Ok I'll be quiet, no need to bring that blade even closer to my neck.
"What should I do with him?"
Kanzaki san sighed and then smiled a little "You let him go, I doubt he did it on purpose and if you hurt that person even just a little bit, you might as well be dooming us all."
"Huh?" the girl holding the blade (which was part of a spear) got closer so she could look at my face, that was when I noticed she was the purple haired girl that was with the guy with the oversized shirt back in the afternoon.
"You're that person's…"
For some reason when she saw my face she got really surprised and pulled back the spear she was holding.
"I'm really sorry for my rudeness, please forgive me."
Then she bowed apologizing and I could do nothing but to look at her not sure about how should I react.
"So this is the one who is the closest to her? He looks kind of plain doesn't he?"
The man with the oversized shirt laughed… wait a minute, what's with the whole 'the one closest' business, it's the same thing that red haired guy was saying the other day.
"Anyway Kyon san, what are you doing here?"
"Well Kanzaki san you see, Haruhi told me to take off the garbage so I did and then when I was coming back I found you guys; I swear I didn't mean to spy on you."
"I see… Well I guess there's no helping it, Kyon san these are two of my colleagues from the Amakusa Catholics."
The girl with the purple hair got besides his partner and introduced herself.
"I'm Itsuwa, sorry about the confusion."
She bowed once again.
"Never mind, it was partly my fault too."
"Tatemiya Saiji, nice to meet you."
"Same here I'm…"
…
"What's wrong?"
"Eh... nothing sorry, like I was saying I'm…"
"Kyon, what the heck is taking you so long? Get back here already!"
Sigh… "Just call me Kyon."
Tatemiya san chuckled before changing back to a serious face.
"Ok, I better make this quick then, the other thing that I needed to tell you was that your request for back up was accepted; we are to follow that woman's instructions and assist you during the trip in any way we can."
"I see… I'm counting on you then."
Funny, she doesn't seem too thrilled with the idea.
"Well we better get going Kyon san, Haruhi san is waiting for us."
"Yeah."
She tried to lead me back into the shop.
"There is one last thing we need to ask you."
Tatemiya san talked to her and she stopped as soon she heard him.
"What is it?"
"We want you to tell us what you think of her, do you really believe she's God? I know that as a Church our official position is that she is, but we wanted to know your opinion about this whole thing."
Kanzaki san sighed and turned around to look at them directly.
"That… is a difficult question… If you're asking me to show you something that proves that she's God without a shadow of a doubt then I can't, I don't have something like that, but… I would like to believe that she is, I can't really explain why but I just can sense this certain aura around her that's sublime and magnificent and I can't help but feel attracted to it, to have faith on her…"
She took a long pause, probably to order his thoughts.
"Look at the very least I can tell you this: Haruhi san is a really special person that must be kept away from the darkness of this world at all cost, everything would be at risk if we didn't and… she deserves to have nice life."
Wow, it seems those two are taking their sisterhood far more seriously than I thought at first, wonderful!
Tatemiya san nodded and smiled at her.
"I see, well if the former Supreme Pontiff of our church accepts her then I see no reason for us not to, still I'm surprised, you seem to be enjoying her company far more than I thought you would."
Kanzaki san then looked away from them and spoke with a voice that was melancholic but with a faint hint of happiness to it "Maybe you're right…"
The she took a long breath and stretched herself a little.
"Well I got to go now, let go Kyon san."
"Yeah."
We quickly waved goodbye and returned to the café, once there I noticed all the customers had already left and the only people inside was the brigade and the owner who had came back to collect the earnings and close the place, either way before we knew it we were outside the café waiting for Haruhi to report the results of today so we could go home.
"Everyone mission accomplished, we managed to collect nearly 48.000¥ by working today and since we established an in store record for most customers in one day, the owner decided to give us Mikuru chan's uniform for an special super cheap prize!"
Hurray.
"And that's not the best part either, thanks to our little photo shoot business we managed to collect an additional 600.000¥, now we have enough money to pay for everyone's trip and to fund the brigade for years to come!"
So let me see if I get this straight, all of us working honestly during the whole day barely earned our goal, but Kanzaki san and Asahina san taking overpriced pictures in waitress uniforms with random strangers managed to make 15 times that amount during the same time… The moral of this story sucks!
"Well, I'm sure you're all tired from working today, so we better go home to get some rest, we deserve it."
We said our goodbyes and were ready to leave.
"See you at school everyone! Oh and Kyon remember we have training tomorrow!"
What? Give me a break would you!
Anyway after that, everyone went home and I was planning to do the same, but as I was beginning to walk I felt someone placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Kyon kun."
"What is it Koizumi?"
He got close to me as usual and put on his serious face.
"I was wondering if you had called everyone who could be helpful during the trip?"
Great, first was Asahina san (older) and now him.
"Yeah sure, I called Touma and he told me he was going to contact Mikoto san too, I told you that."
"I know but I thought there's someone else you could call…"
"I have no idea of who you're talking about."
Stop staring at me dude…
"Come on Koizumi, do I have to?"
"Yes."
"Do I really, really, really have to?"
"Yes you have to; actually it'd be best if you made the call now."
"But it's quite late right now so…"
"I don't think that's going to be a problem."
He just stared at me and smiled…
"Ok ok, I'll make the call."
Oh well, it's not like I'm going to get charged for it anyway; I quickly grabbed my phone and pressed a key at random (it doesn't really matter which, the number I'm calling is speed dial in all of them) and then almost immediately I heard someone picking up on the other side.
"Hello~!"
"Hello… Shizuri?"
Prelude to an invisible war III
Academy City, JosePh'S Coffee and Restaurant:
"But I don't get it Mugino, why do we have to cancel our mission? I know you don't like that we're supposed to cooperate with that guy, but the pay is great and it's just a kidnapping so it should be easy."
Currently team ITEM was having a discussion about their next assignment.
"Yeah Frenda, that's what I thought until I saw just who are we supposed to kidnap."
"What do you mean?"
Mugino searched in her purse and pulled out a little hand book.
"Take a look."
Frenda quickly grabbed the book and looked at the first page.
"But… this makes no sense!"
She showed the book to her coworkers who were just as surprised to see who their target was.
"Her? What's with that girl that just keeps popping out in our missions?"
"She's a level 6."
As Mugino bluntly said that all of her partners became quiet and looked at her like she was crazy.
"What… What are you talking about Mugino?"
"Well I'm not sure if she is a level 6 exactly, but at the very least she's someone so powerful that the people on top think that she is."
"What makes you say that?"
"Don't you think its suspicious Kinuhata? first we get that weird mission to make that other guy touch her, usually no one would ask for such a silly thing, but we got a huge pay, all of our expenses covered and they even got us that guy from Skill Out to help us with anything we needed remember him?"
"Yeah sure, the one that fell for Takitsubo I remember him."
"And now someone else asked us to kidnap her for yet another huge pile of money, since apparently she was invited to the city by the general director himself… hell I'm a level 5 and I've never met the guy, why would a random girl from some backwater town receive such an invitation? It makes no sense!"
"I see, I suppose that means she's important somehow… but I still don't see why you'd think she's a level 6."
Mugino took a little break to take a little sip of her drink, she had considered telling them about what happened in the closed space, but she concluded that they probably wouldn't believe her so it was best to try another approach.
"Well, this is something I didn't told you girls back then, but remember when I ambushed that girl at the top of that building?"
"Yeah, what about that?"
"The thing is that in order to make the guy touch her I used one of my silicon cards to fire several beams at her."
"But you weren't supposed to attack her directly!"
"Yeah, but I aimed carefully plus it's not like the mission said she had to be alive when they touched anyway."
Saiai sweat dropped a little.
"Don't worry about it, I could have shot directly at her all I wanted and it wouldn't have mattered at that point."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You see, the thing is that every single beam I fired at her… was a blank."
"I didn't know you could shoot blanks."
"That's the problem… I can't! Best thing I can do that's not harmful is that stupid trick that I used to scare the nun's cat, yet for some reason every single beam I fired at her in that moment was a blank."
"So you're saying she canceled your powers… but then if she's really a level 6 why she didn't just defeat you or at least fought back."
"Because I don't think she knows, you see when I told her the reason why I was attacking her, it was so ridiculous she believed the whole thing was just a play her friends had set up for her and the next time I shot at her my atom breaker got turned into a pathetic magic trick, quite a coincidence don't you think?"
All of her partners looked at her in disbelief, I mean what she said made no sense but why would she lie about that?
"And that's not the only thing either, there's another story that I heard from my 'informant' recently."
There was a tiny blush on her face when she said the word 'informant'.
"What is it?"
"It seems our girl got a visit from number 1 last week."
"What! And she is still alive?"
"Not only she's perfectly fine, it seems he was a little rude with her and she scolded him by hitting him right on the tip of his nose."
"Ok, now I really don't believe you, she managed to hit that guy?"
"Yep."
"And he didn't kill her?"
"We wouldn't get a request to kidnap a corpse."
There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to digest the information they just got, however Mugino still wasn't finished.
"Besides that there is another reason I believe we should cancel this mission, look at the next page of the briefing, the part that talks about possible threats."
Frenda quickly did as she was told.
"Huh! What the hell is this? 'She might be accompanied by 6 of her friends, however these people are just regular humans and pose no threat'… are you freaking kidding me? My neck still feels a little sore in the mornings and I got that one from the moeblob!"
"Yep, apparently our client this time is either completely clueless or doesn't care if we all get killed, judging by how they also hired that bastard to cooperate with us on such an 'easy mission' I'd say it's the latter; but neither is the kind of people I like to work for."
There was silence again and it seemed to give a silent approval to Mugino's proposal.
"Unbelievable, and to think that if it wasn't for that mission the other day we could be blindly charging to our deaths."
"Yes Frenda, a lot of wonderful things came out from that mission…"
Once again a little blush appeared on Mugino's face as Saiai made an almost unnoticeable chuckle.
"Well, then I guess we'll be skipping this mission, no big deal, now we have the whole weekend to ourselves, super!"
"Actually Kinuhata, yesterday I got a proposal for another mission related to this one, the pay it's not as good but I think we should take it."
"Huh? What is it about?"
"Well, basically we have to join forces with a coalition that's gathering to protect that girl and prevent her from seeing anything esper related during her visit."
"What? Are you crazy? That's impossible!"
"Not at all, apparently there's someone among the people we're going to cooperate with that knows a way to do it and I also thought we could keep the façade and spy on that bastard to make our job easier, plus even if we fail I'll still pay you girls so there's no downside to it."
"No downside! We'd have to fight with him at the very least and if she's as important as you said the entire dark side could be going after her too; not to mention it's one thing to cancel a mission, but if we betray our client so openly we might as well be asking for them to put a price on our heads!"
"Yeah, we'll need to lay low for a while after this and I'd much rather fight against that narcissist bastard than to mess with a level 6 thank you; think about it if we succeed we could be gaining the favors of the most powerful person in the universe."
Saiai looked at Mugino directly in the eyes before sighing.
"Oh well, I'm not particularly thrilled with this idea, but you're the boss."
"Great, what about you Frenda, Takitsubo?"
Rikou only raised her head a little bit and nodded. "Ok."
"Sure Mugino, I'll do as you say."
Mugino gave herself a satisfied nod.
"Well then, we're supposed to meet with the people we'll be cooperating with on Wednesday night in an abandoned theater on eastern Tokyo and the meeting with the bastard is in the morning, so we have time to prepare until then; now if you excuse me, I need to do some emergency shopping."
"Want us to go with you?"
"No, it's nothing serious; I just need to buy some personal stuff."
"If it is about 'hygiene products' I could lend you some of mine if you need."
"No Frenda, I have enough 'hygiene products' for now thank you!"
She blushed a little before clearing her throat.
"Like I said it's nothing serious, I'm just going to the Seventh Mist for a little while and then back home."
"Ok fine…"
Frenda stood up so Mugino could leave.
"Bye girls, see you later."
"Bye."
She quickly said her goodbyes and left as fast as she could.
"So… who was her and what did she do with Mugino?"
"Huh? What do you mean Kinuhata?"
"Oh come on Frenda! Don't tell me you didn't notice there was something weird about her?"
"Like what?"
"Like the way she was so insistent on taking that other mission, I mean yeah betraying the dark side of Academy City all at once is such a good idea; if she really were so cautious about this we should remain neutral and then join the winning side… and come on! As if Mugino is going to cancel a mission just because she'll be fighting someone who might be stronger than her!"
Frenda gulped. "Yeah you're right, that doesn't sound like Mugino all that much."
"Well people do act out of character when they're in love."
"What! Mugino is… impossible!"
"Explain to me then why did she blushed when she was talking about her 'informant'… actually since when does she even has an informant on that town?"
"But…"
"And the thing she said earlier 'a lot of wonderful things came out from that mission…' with a little blush on her face, I almost couldn't hold back and laugh at her face when she said something so corny."
Saiai chuckled as Frenda was astonished witht that revelation.
"But, But, But… How? Why? When? Who?"
"Well 'How' and 'Why' I can't tell, but I believe we can be sure it was during the mission on that town, she has been acting weird ever since we finished it; remember the whole 'business' she had to take care of?"
"Yeah, I thought that was weird too…"
"And since she was fine before splitting up on that day, I think we can be sure that the 'who' is one of the guys that were with her on that building."
They took a few seconds to think.
"I'm guessing it was that bishonen esper from that other organization, that guy is hot."
"Nah, I'd say it was the other one with the spiky hair, he might not look like much but he just has that 'something' that would make any girl go crazy for him."
"Nope, it was the guy that bumped into her before."
Huh? Both girls turned around as they heard Rikou entering their conversation for the first time.
"Come on, as if she's going to fall for such a boring looking guy."
They both chuckled for a while.
"Yeah, I mean that guy looks so useless, there's no way Mugino would like him."
"But she had a picture with him on her cell phone and they looked like they were on a date together."
And then… silence.
"I can't believe it…"
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yeah, I noticed it the other day, it's her wallpaper."
"But… why didn't you say anything before?"
Rikou just raised her shoulders and didn't answer.
"You know that does explain that other thing I thought was weird."
"What is it Kinuhata?"
"Remember when we were at the hot springs and I was trying to tease Takitsubo about her new boyfriend being a level 0 and Mugino said something along the lines of 'a non esper is fine too'? "
"Yeah, I thought she was just trying to be nice."
"Me too, but if we take into account that he's the only guy without any kind of ability on our list, then everything makes perfect sense."
There was silence again on the table and it was only a few minutes later when Frenda snapped out of it angrily.
"I can't believe this! If I had known this was going to happen I'd never would've proposed that mission, we would have been way better off taking the one to stop the assassination of Director Oyafune."
"Nah, I had a bad feeling about that one and I heard it was canceled at the last second anyway."
"Argh! That's it! I'm not participating in this mission."
"Come on Frenda, that won't stop Mugino at all and... aren't you a little curious?"
"About what!"
"About the guy that made Mugino fall for him so badly in 10 minutes, not to mention there's something else that's been bothering me, remember she said that even if we failed she would still pay us?"
"Yeah…"
"Why would she pay us? The client is the one supposed to do that."
"Then… wait a minute you don't mean?"
"Exactly, we both know that Mugino is not exactly in this business for the money, but she's also not the kind of person to do something for free either; so if she's willing to pay the mission herself then that means..."
"That she is getting something better than money for it."
Later that day in North high:
It was already after school and I was wasting my time as usual playing games with Koizumi.
'Wedding march'
"Kyon pick up the… what's with that ring tone?"
"Eh… remember I lost my phone recently, when I got it back that song was set on it and for some reason I can't change it back."
What? Technically I'm not lying.
"That's weird… but oh well I guess it doesn't matter."
After saying that she went back to the computer.
"Hey Kaori neesan, I was looking at some costumes for Mikuru chan to get with the money we earned yesterday and I think I found a perfect one for you… it's the Fallen-Angel Ero-maid+alpha costume, what do you think?"
Kanzaki san took a good look at the screen and blushed.
"Haruhi san… I would never wear something like that, never!"
"I see, its a shame I think it'd look great on you… well then I guess I'll just settle for the Great Elemental Spirit/peep-maid costume for Mikuru chan and call it a day."
You know for some reason I don't think our extra funds are going to last… oh well let's see what the psycho girl wants, I mean last night she 'Glare' me into talking with her for 3 hours (don't ask how that works over the phone, it just does) so I don't know what could it be.
"Kyon darling how are you? I just wanted to tell you I managed to convince my subordinates and that we will be helping you when you come here, by the way today I went to do some lingerie shopping in preparation for your visit and since we haven't seen each other in so long I decided to send you the pictures of me wearing the models I didn't choose… if you want to see the one I did buy then I'll gladly wear it for you when it's time to collect my reward 'Wink'."
Sigh... You know I'm not even going to bother with excuses this time; these pictures go straight into her hidden folder.
Open: Downloads\Lingerie_Colection\001 .jpg