Tuesday early morning, September 21 – The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery
It was another early morning at the park. This time there was a difference though. Word had got around that the hometown genius had done something spectacular and there were a few dozen spectators in the park even at this ridiculous hour. But that wasn't the only difference.
Several cars with credentials from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) were there this time. They carried a number of people that identified themselves as "experts in the field" and "safety inspectors" that said they were here to here to help and to observe.
Fortunately, Kobayashi-hakase and Tomoya had anticipated this. They had arrived with their credentials that identified them as officials from the government and expected to be granted access to anything they asked for. Most of them were quite surprised when they were instead, escorted to a temporary pergola that seemed to have been set up for them. This pergola had been set up near the entrance to the park. From there, one of the project trucks was visible about a half a block away, but there were trees and playground equipment between the temporary shelter and the target area at center field.
"Good morning everyone. If you are here to be an observer, please see the young lady at the back of the pergola. If you are here to help or if you believe yourself to be an expert in the field, please take a seat and we'll get this over with as quickly as possible." Melissa said slowly in her best Japanese while she smiled cheerfully to the group of alleged experts, helpers, and inspectors. She noticed that some of them were sitting down as requested while others were looking around disdainfully. Only a few followed her instructions to go to the back and be designated as observers.
"You'll be getting what over with as quickly as possible?" one of the sneering men asked in a bored monotone. Unlike most of the other government workers, he wore finer clothes that appeared to fit as if they had been tailored. He was the kind of person that bore himself like an aristocrat and expected to be treated like one.
"The testing and vetting process, of course." Melissa gave the generic official a smile that only barely hid her contempt for that kind of person. That same smile also hid her laughter at what she knew was about to happen. She claimed not to have a sadistic streak, but putting self-important people in their place was something that she truly enjoyed.
"I assure you, I have the highest authorization." the aristocratic official wearily proclaimed as he snapped open his hand-sewn leather ID case. Following his example, other officials began reaching for their credentials as well.
"Yes, well I'm sure that is all very interesting, but this is not a government operation so those credentials are worthless here." Melissa said through her continuous smile.
Worthless? Did that foreign bitch dare say that my credentials are worthless? There was a dead silence as the aristocrat's face twisted from boredom to anger. Peers, coworkers, and underlings took a step back. The rage and spite that this man was capable of was legendary. Many of them feared for the woman's safety, but none of them would intervene. To get in the way of this administrator when he was enraged, was a career ender.
"WHAT!" he made sure that his angry shriek could be heard across the park. The haughty administrator's face was now livid with rage as he bellowed, "You bitch! How dare you..." He took a step toward Melissa and suddenly stopped. The ugliest man, and the scariest man he had ever seen had just stepped into the light to stand on either side of the infuriating foreigner.
From the darkness beyond the pergola, Hiroki and Takeo saw their cue. It was just as Tomoya-san had said it would be, Watch carefully. Melissa will be talking to them and at some point, one or more of them will act enraged and may move toward her. When that happens, that will be your signal to act. Remember, Melissa is Kotomi's good friend. I am putting her safety in your hands because I believe you can do this better than anyone else. Neither Hiroki or Takeo cared that much for Tomoya. It wasn't that they hated him, they just didn't care. But Kotomi was their employer and, more importantly, she was the good friend of Yukine-sama and The Boss. For those three, they would gladly break all the heads in the room.
The administrator stopped when he saw two very tough looking men step out of the shadows and stand to the left and right of this unpleasant foreign woman. He was prepared to destroy her for her discourtesy and impudence… but challenging a couple of thugs was another matter altogether.
"What's going on here? Who are these men? I'll not stand for these intimidation tactics! I'm calling the police." the administrator whipped out his phone while maintaining his glare at the foreign woman who dared to challenge him.
"I am the police." Youhei and one of his uniformed officers stepped into the light under the Pergola now. "Detective Sunohara of the Prefecture Police."
"I demand..." the piqued administrator started yelling, but Youhei cut him off with some words of warning.
"Before you say anything, it is my duty to inform you that everything you have said and done from the moment you got out of your car, has been recorded. I, along with this uniformed officer, have personally witnessed everything that has transpired since you entered the pergola." Youhei then cleared his throat and asked, "At this time I need to know if you wish to press charges?"
"I most certainly do!" the administrator growled.
"I wasn't speaking to you." Youhei said levelly, "Shouting in anger while using derogatory profanity, and charging. This constitutes assault in Japan." Youhei feigned embarrassment and said, "To think that a representative of our government would shame our good country by acting so uncivil to a visiting dignitary… it is unforgivable."
"I'm okay." Melissa continued her cheerful smile as she explained, "I am only here to administer the test to anyone that wants to do more than observe. All observers will be required to stay in the safety zones as designated by our local government and police."
"Who… who are you to be testing us?" the administrator tried once more to salvage his tattered dignity.
"Oh, this is not my test. This test was created by Professors Okazaki and Kobayashi." Melissa explained, "They created this test for graduate students hoping to be interns on this project. It is designed to determine if the applicant has the basic and fundamental knowledge to join the team in any capacity at all. I'm sure that anyone the MEXT chose to send along as an Expert will have no problems with this little test. I passed the test with flying colors, after all. Oh, and to answer your question… you can call me Professor M. I am a professor of physics from Marsh University."
"Give me that!" the administrator snatched the test sheet from Melissa and quickly ran through the questions. There were only eleven blanks on the sheet, and he had to admit to himself that the only one he could fill in was next to where it asked for his name. The rest of the exam was undecipherable gibberish as far as he could tell. Still glaring, he turned around and threw the test sheet at a man that was supposed to be good at math and physics. After all, he was on the council for selecting the official government-sanctioned textbooks for those courses – so he should know something about it.
"Does this make any sense to you?" he sneered at his peer.
"Oh… wow." the man swallowed as he carefully read through the questions on the page. "This is all some pretty cutting edge stuff." To avoid admitting outright that he couldn't answer even one question on the page… at least not without doing some considerable research, he asked, "I am familiar with Kobayashi-hakase, but who is this Okazaki-hakase you spoke of?"
"Oh, I guess you are more familiar with her unmarried name. Ichinose Kotomi is married to Okazaki Tomoya so I know her as Okazaki-hakase." Melissa informed them.
"Ah, well then… I don't believe there is a single person here that can answer more than a single question on this test." the man admitted.
"IDIOTS!" the administrator screamed hysterically, "Why am I surrounded by incompetent idiots!" Forgetting everything but his indignation, he then turned on Melissa. His arm swung to slap the impudent fool as he yelled, "And you…"
Part of his conscious mind remembered that Melissa wasn't alone. That memory was jogged when a fist the size of a small anvil, slammed into the side of his head. His legs buckled and there was a horrible ringing sound in his ears as he now knelt before Melissa and the two toughs. To his credit, the blow did not knock him out. Dazed and confused, he couldn't even recall which of the two toughs had hit him but the scary one looked positively murderous now. Looking over at the two cops, he could see the one in the uniform pulling out his handcuffs. Unfortunately, it wasn't the two toughs that the cop was looking at.
"I… I…" the administrator looked around and realized that he had just done something exceedingly stupid. The damned foreign woman had never changed her countenance, even when he took a swing at her. The two toughs looked like they would get immense enjoyment from beating him senseless. The Detective and Officer looked down on him with contempt. Without turning too much, he could see several of his colleagues and even underlings were unwilling to make eye contact. Some had turned away. No! This… this can't be happening! He had been selected by the Minister himself to head up this group of experts and inspectors… and he had just utterly failed.
"Are we in trouble?" Hiroki asked Youhei.
"No. The job you were given was to be the lady's bodyguard, right?" Youhei asked.
"Yup." Hiroki agreed.
"Then you were just doing your job." Youhei commended Yukine's boys. He was glad that they had been able to keep that idiot away from Kotomi's friend. He was doubly glad that Takeo had pulled his punch to such a degree. There would have been a lot more paperwork if that jackass had died.
.
"Well… at least the screaming stopped." Tomoya commented from the pergola where he waited with Kotomi and Tomoyo. Kyou wasn't at the park this morning since she would be having a very busy day at her school. Soon after the comment, he got a text message from Youhei.
Youhei: You were right about almost everything. It's over now. They have all decided to become observers. Do we have enough of those funny glasses to go around?
Tomoya: Almost? What was I wrong about? And yeah… the glasses she has ready for the crowd don't have the resolution of the goggles, but I think they'll be impressed.
Youhei: One of them was stupid enough to try and hit Melissa. She's okay. Yukine's boys took care of it.
Tomoya: Is he still alive?
Youhei: Yeah. Takeo pulled his punch. I've got the jerk in custody now. He'll be spending a few nights at the local jail until someone from the Ministry comes to take him away.
Tomoya: If you don't mind, let's not let Kotomi find out about this until after today's mission is all over.
Youhei: No problem. I'm going to check on the uniform cops for a bit. Call me when the countdown is starting. I wanna see this light-show you've been talking about.
Tomoya: You got it. And, thanks.
When Tomoya looked up from his phone, he saw Tomoyo staring at him. Kotomi was busy going over some things on her laptop and probably wouldn't notice a conversation but he didn't want to take any chances. He opened the screen on his phone to display the conversation he just had with Youhei and passed his phone over to the platinum blond.
Tomoyo had not been pleased with the idea of using any of her men for this bodyguard duty. She was trying to get them away from things that would lead to fighting, but there just wasn't enough time to arrange anyone else. At least, not anyone that could walk freely in the inner circle around Kotomi without spooking her. On the other hand, seeing Youhei's report that Takeo had thought enough to pull his punch, had to make Tomoyo feel better about it. While Tomoyo read through the conversation, Tomoya looked around at the other people in the pergola with him.
At the next table over were a couple of Kotomi's senior techs and the exploration team, which this time included Isamu, Iwao, Mikio, and Takeshi. The techs didn't seem as stand-offish as they had been before the first mission. Kotomi wouldn't have to tell the boys about the new features in their equipment this time. It looked like the techs were more than eager to reveal the new improvements and explain the last minute additions to the special devices in the secret drawer in their toolboxes.
More than the others, Isamu was glad that they had listened to the feedback from the first mission. Two of the special devices hadn't been changed in terms of function, but they had been rebuilt to make them more lightweight. Isamu and Hiroki had discovered that lugging around their heavy tool boxes everywhere they went was very tiring. The other two devices did have new functionality though. The communication team had come through again and had something new for them to test… although it was only theoretical that it would work until they attempted it. The belief was that a shrinking remnant of the tunnel would remain for a while, after the team had transitioned across. How strong the tunnel was and how long it would last were complete unknowns. Isamu had chosen Mikio to be their communications experiment guy, but he wasn't the only one getting the training. Iwao was Mikio's backup and Ryota was listening in as well since he was more familiar with electronics and would be going along on the next expedition.
There were members of the health and prep team there as well. Their role had been greatly expanded since the last mission. Since Kotomi still could not be certain about the environment or even the time of year of the destination universe, they were now being prepped for everything that could be imagined. With thermal underwear, waterproof parka's and gloves, self-heating mugs, sunscreen, lip balm, and insect repellent, they looked more like they were going camping, rather than looking like the four man work team they were supposed to be. The new plan was to quickly ascertain the environment, then hide anything they didn't need in the park.
"Hey." Tomoyo said as she laid a hand on Isamu's shoulder.
"Yeah?" he looked up to see her concerned but not nearly as stressed as she had been their first time out.
"Do you feel good about this?" Tomoyo asked him as a team leader. The fact that he was the only one that had any experience bothered her more and more as they got closer to the day of the mission. However, she had seen how diligently they had all been training themselves and had decided to trust Isamu's judgment.
"Yeah." Isamu nodded his head. "If anything, I think we might be over-prepared. I mean, what if we show up in the middle of the day during a baseball game? How are we gonna explain all of this gear?"
"Hmmm," Tomoyo considered it and said, "If four guys suddenly materialize in the middle of center field during a baseball game, I think that would be a hard thing to explain no matter how they were dressed or how much gear they were carrying."
"Yeah… good point." Isamu chuckled.
At that moment, everyone could hear their ear-buds crackle to life with an announcement.
"Attention attention. The countdown is now at fifteen minutes. Could the exploration team to go to the target area now, please." the voice was calm but the announcement triggered excitement in everyone.
"Before you go, I want to show you something." Kotomi called out to Tomoyo and her team as they stood up and grabbed their gear. She pushed her laptop into a better position to show everyone and stood behind her screen.
"Whatcha got, Kotomi-chan?" Isamu asked the girl genius.
"This is the waveform we are going to use this time. After studying the results of the last attempt, I believe I have found the elements that define elasticity and stream relativity of time." Kotomi told them excitedly.
"Huh?" Iwao grunted but he was not the only one that was confused.
"Kotomi-chan… Can you say it in a way that we can all understand it, or do I need to call Melissa over here to interpret for you?" Tomoyo poked at Kotomi.
"Uhmm… I think I understand enough to make sure you are at the same date or the same time when you get to the parallel world. This time, I am shooting for the same date. So please find out what the date there is before you come back. Although… this does mean that you might not be getting there at the time we would like." Kotomi finished talking and looked over to Tomoyo for approval.
"I got it. Thank you Kotomi-chan." Isamu confirmed, then turned to the others he said, "Grab your stuff. It's time to do amazin things!"
.
Several others were waiting at the roped off area around the target site. Youhei was there, but his uniformed officers were all in their crowd control positions. Melissa was there with Hiroki and Takeo. Nagisa and Ryou were there as well. The two girls had come out from the nearby Furukawa residence to watch the show. They had both been patiently sitting in the designated observation area that was essentially the bleachers behind third base. But Hiroki would have none of that. He had been with Melissa while she was conducting a question and answer session with the audience and handing out the special viewing glasses. That was when he had spotted the two girls in the audience. Before they knew what was happening, they were joining Melissa's party and heading for center field. Some of the government functionaries that had been exiled to the designated observation area were a bit miffed that these girls seemed to be getting special treatment, but none of them seemed to feel so strongly about it that they were willing to confront Melissa and her bodyguards on the subject.
"Our send-off gets better each time." Isamu said jokingly as he looked around at all the pretty women that had come to the roped off perimeter. His joke drew smiles from everyone… except Tomoyo.
"Two minutes." the voice in their ears warned.
"Here, put these on." Takeo handed his goggles over to Ryou. "I've seen this show before."
"You can have mine." Hiroki was handing his goggles over to Nagisa when Kotomi stopped him.
"Not Nagisa-chan." Kotomi put her delicate fingers on Hiroki's huge hand to stop him.
"Huh?" Both Nagisa and Hiroki turned to Kotomi in surprise. Hiroki wanted Nagisa to see the strange but pretty lights too. The fact that Kotomi was stopping him was starting to make him angry.
"Nagisa-chan is special… like Tomoya-kun. I want her to watch this with her naked eye. If I am right, she will be able to see the orbs unassisted." Kotomi told the two of them.
"Oh… yeah. Okay." Hiroki had to admit that Nagisa was special. Whether from some other universe, or this one, she was very special to him anyways.
Ryou could see how protective Hiroki was acting and felt a flare of jealousy wash through her. Hey, your Nagisa is in another universe jerk, this one's mine! No… I… I shouldn't think that way. He was only being nice to Nagisa and I… I shouldn't let something like that bother me. Her gaze fell on Tomoya standing next to Kotomi and felt a momentary flare of anger before the same internal voice calmed her down again. It's as if Kotomi isn't even human. The way she thinks is so strange… so different from so many established norms. I wonder if she is even able to understand jealousy? And onee-chan… as explosive as she is… how is she able to live in that environment? The stress must be killing her.
"One minute." the calm voice announced. At that moment, the senior tech opened the rope and let the exploration team through to stand on the designated spot.
"Thirty seconds." All four of the men were standing back to back with their tool boxes and their extra gear in their hands.
"Now Nagisa-chan, I want you to focus on the area around where the exploration team is standing." Kotomi told her friend as she too watched the target area.
"Ten seconds." A murmur came up from the crowd as several people in the audience could now see the strange little light baubles appearing. Many people were taking their glasses off and putting them back on to see if they could figure out how the special effects trick worked.
"Ah! What..." Nagisa was about to ask what the strange lights were when she suddenly had the feeling she had seen them before.
"Nine." The number of light baubles increased. Some of them seemed to come up out of the ground while others materialized out of thin air.
"You can see them, can't you?" Kotomi asked.
"Eight." There were now so many lights that the ground around the four men looked like a carpet of light.
"Yes! They're so pretty!" Nagisa cheered.
"Seven." The lights started their dancing motion. Some of them were bobbing up and down while others seemed to tumble or spin.
"They're moving!" Nagisa was astounded.
"Six." More lights appeared. No longer on the ground, they were also floating in the air like very slow moving fireflies.
"Five." The motion of the lights changed and they all seemed to be moving slowly toward the four men in the center of it all.
"Oh… oh no!" Nagisa saw them moving in on the four men and was worried for them.
"Four." As the lights got closer, they began to speed up and swirl around the four men.
"It's okay. They are harmless." Kotomi reassured Nagisa.
"Three." The light baubles were moving so fast now that they looked like streaks of light rather than distinct baubles.
"Two." None of the four men could be seen any more. They were all buried underneath the blizzard of soft white lights.
"One." Just as they had before, all of the lights suddenly folded back on themselves – dropping to the ground and then rushing up into the cloudy sky in a tall pyre.
"Zero." The lights were gone, leaving behind only an empty center field.
There was a pause as people realized that the four men and all their gear were now gone from the test area. There was disbelief and wonder, but no-one seemed able to speak at the moment. They were all jarred from their stupor when a calm voice made an announcement over the portable speakers.
"Twenty-ten, September twenty-one, 4:55 AM local..." the rest of the announcer's message was drowned out by the sudden burst of applause. The people in the audience were amazed. Few of them knew what to make of it. Some thought it was an elaborate stage trick. Others had a hard time believing what they had seen. Regardless of what had really happened, they had all witnessed something amazing and very entertaining.
"We're going to need more police next time." Youhei said as he too tried to come to grips with the amazing thing he had just seen… and the raucous applause coming from the people in the observation area. Even the skeptical ministry officials had been amazed at what they had seen. He looked over at Kotomi and Tomoya but they seemed intent on something else. They were still staring at the place where the four guys had been standing but their hands were over their ears. He deduced that they were trying to hear what was being said on the ear-buds they were all wearing. Having figured that out, he noticed that Melissa, Tomoyo, her boys, and the technicians that were with them were all doing the same thing. Hey, how come I didn't get an ear-bud?
"Standing by for transmission from target." the voice in the ear-buds said. The voice paused and everyone waited to hear from the communications team.
"How long should it take Mikio to get the radio set up and transmit back." Tomoya asked.
"I dunno." Ryota replied with a smirk, "We were concentrating more on doing it right and not breaking anything, than trying to do it quickly."
"Transmission received! I repeat: transmission received." the voice sounded like restrained triumph as it continued to report, "Voice is working. It is still dark at the target location and not terribly cold. They will be hiding their gear in the park. The embedded time-code has been received and is being processed."
"Embedded time-code?" Tomoyo asked.
"If you will recall," Melissa replied since it looked like Kotomi was wrapped up in something her tablet computer was telling her, "on the last expedition, time passed more quickly at the target universe than it did here. The embedded time-code will give us an idea how our time compares to theirs so that we have a better idea of when the expedition team should be ready to come back."
"Hey!" Youhei almost laughed, "I understood that! Are you sure you're a scientist like Kotomi?"
"Ha ha ha!" Melissa laughed, "I am a scientist, but not like Kotomi. There are only a handful of people like her on the whole planet and admittedly, I… am not at that level."
"You don't seem upset about it?" Youhei was a little surprised that she could admit something like that so easily.
"I'm not." Melissa smiled and explained, "Imagine that you were a car. And not just any car… let's say that you were the best Lamborghini that was ever made. There might be a few cars that are a little better than you but there are lots and lots of cars that aren't, right?"
"Yeah." Youhei had to admit that he liked the way this woman explained things. It didn't come out all sciency and he didn't get a headache trying to grasp what she was saying.
"One day, you meet a stealth fighter. It's a lot faster than you. It can do things that you could never dream of. As a car, would you be jealous of that stealth fighter?" Melissa asked.
"Um… no. It's not a car." Youhei answered.
"Exactly!" Melissa chirped.
"Okay…" Youhei understood then. Melissa didn't have to say that there were a lot of things a car could do that a jet airplane couldn't. They each had their uses and she knew what hers was, just as Youhei believed that the best use of his talents was as a detective. Thinking about everything the red headed American had just said, he asked, "So… how soon will we know about the time thing?"
"We already know that the time ratios are close. We should have a more precise answer in about an hour." Melissa replied.
"So… no chance they'll be coming back in the next several hours?" Youhei asked.
"Oh no…" Melissa then caught herself and said, "Well… they shouldn't be. We are going to keep sending the test patterns out at regular intervals so there is a chance they might signal for a premature return if there is some sort of emergency on their side. But, if they aren't having a crisis, there shouldn't be anything interesting happening here until after midnight."
"All right, thanks." Youhei then turned away from the others and brought up his police radio. With a few short instructions, he told the officers that had been assigned to him that they were released as soon as the observation area was cleared out. He asked for two volunteers to stick around and told the rest that they would need to be available for recall starting at midnight the next day.
Kotomi was still pouring over her tablet, but Tomoya and Tomoyo watched Youhei in awe as he confidently issued the orders out to his men over his radio.
"That's just so hard to believe… even though I'm seeing it for myself." Tomoya commented.
"Who would have thought that Sunohara Youhei would become the voice of authority?" Tomoyo added.
"Melissa-chan?" Youhei called out after lowering the hand-held radio and turning back to face the group. "Some of the ministry people would like to know if you or Kotomi-chan could be available for a short question and answer session."
"Can you let them know that I'm on my way over to the pergola now?" Melissa asked Youhei. Then she playfully linked arms with the two shorter but still rather fearsome looking protectors and asked Tomoyo, "Can I borrow your boys for a little bit longer?"
"I need Hiroki for something, but you can have Kenta and Takeo." Tomoyo motioned for Kenta to join the red headed professor then added, "Please try not to get them in any more trouble."
"I'll be coming along too." Youhei added as he started entering a text message on his cell phone while heading off for the pergola.
"Aww." Melissa made a disappointed sound as she un-entwined her arm with Hiroki so he could go to Tomoyo. She watched Kenta approach and unabashedly checked out her hips and boobs. She was about ten centimeters taller than the tough looking man, but it didn't seem to bother him at all.
Kenta liked what he saw. She wasn't super-athletic, but for a brainiac, she was pretty hot. He looked up from her breasts to her face, expecting to see a blush from his blatant sexual harassment. Instead he saw a feral grin and eyes that looked like they were seeing a slab of beef that had just been delivered for her consumption. Before he could say anything, she took his arm like she held Takeo's.
"You heard what your Boss said." Melissa smiled slyly while walking between her two vicious looking bodyguards, "Let's go have some fun!"
"Lady, your idea of fun and our idea of fun ain't necessarily the same thing." Kenta snickered. She had tripped him up with that gaze but he was determined to get the initiative back.
"What makes you think it's not?" Melissa smiled as she let her hand trail down Kenta's back and firmly grasped his butt.
"Ah!" Kenta tripped and stumbled for a moment before regaining his composure.
Nagisa, Ryou, Tomoya and Tomoyo watched the trio walking away for a minute. They were all stunned at how easily the tall red-head could make Tomoyo's tough guys blush. A girl making them feel uneasy was not something any of them were used to.
"Kenta may have met his match with that one." Tomoyo commented and then asked, "Are all Americans like that?"
"No, she is unique even there." Tomoya answered, "She says she drinks like an Irishman and parties like a Brazilian."
"Brazilian? Are they known for their parties?" Hiroki asked.
"Ever heard of the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro?" Tomoya asked.
"Oh… uh… yeah. I didn't know that was in Brazil." Hiroki had seen some erotic magazines with pictures and stories about that legendary Carnival, but he had always thought it was just made up… until now. Remembering what Tomoyo had just said, he turned to her and asked, "So Boss, you got somethin for me?"
"Yeah. There are still a lot of people around. I want you to escort Nagisa and Ryou back to the Bakery. And here…" Tomoyo handed him a wad of Yen notes, "buy a bunch of breakfast breads for you and the boys."
"Yes Boss!" Hiroki liked this assignment. He got to make sure Nagisa was safe and he got to eat some breakfast breads from the Furukawa Bakery too!
.
Tuesday morning, September 21 – Aoki Elementary School
The students were all taking tests when the sound of a vibrating cell phone disturbed everyone. Kyou was about to demand to know who had forgotten to silence their phone and put it in the cubby when she realized she could feel the vibration against her leg. Pulling the phone out, she could see it was a text message from Tomoya.
"Bad sensei! You're not following the class rules." the second grade boy admonished his teacher. This created a few giggles around the room.
Kyou glanced at the time on her phone and noticed that there was only a minute left of the test time.
"Quiet until the test time is over. Then I will apologize to the room appropriately." Kyou promised. When the time ran out, she had them pass all their tests to the Kindergarten girl who brought them up to the teacher's desk. "Now then, I do apologize for the interruption of my phone, but I did not break the class rules."
"But…" several voices started to talk at once but Kyou raised a finger and they quieted down to hear the rest of her explanation.
"The deal was that you could have the phone with you if there was a very important reason for it. The reasons could be something like a family emergency or a medical reason. Would you like to hear my reason?"
"Yes!" the young voices chorused.
"This morning, in a city park not too far from this school, something very exciting happened." Kyou looked around the room at the kids to see if she was generating the level of excitement she had hoped to. She was about to ask if anyone knew what it was when she remembered that Shuichi and Shuji were in the room. Of course they knew…
"What? What was it?" the second grade boy asked.
"You see, early this morning a bunch of scientists, police, explorers, and government officials gathered in the park to watch… a science experiment!" Kyou tried to build as much tension as she could… but she could feel it all fall apart with the punch line.
"A science experiment?" the fifth grade boy asked with evident skepticism.
"Yes. They used a particle accelerator…" Kyou tried to explain.
"Four." Shuji said aloud but didn't look up from the drawing he was making in his notebook.
"That's right, four particle accelerators! And, they opened a doorway to another parallel Planet!" Kyou could tell that she wasn't doing a good job of selling this to the kids by the way they were looking at her in disbelief.
"Universe." Shuji offered another correction.
"Yes, another parallel universe!" Kyou looked over at Yuki who had her hand covering her face in an effort to hide her laughter.
"This morning?" the fifth grader looked at Kyou as if she had lost her mind.
"Yes." Kyou answered. She was glad that at least one person in the room was interested enough to ask questions, but she wasn't pleased that he obviously didn't believe her.
"In a city park?" the fifth grader asked again.
"Yes." Kyou could see that this wasn't going in the direction she wanted it to at all.
"I don't believe it." the fifth grader said and several of the other students were agreeing with him.
"It's true." Shuichi told the rest of the class, "My Okāsan made the machines that are doing it."
"Really?" the fifth grade boy still sounded full of disbelief, but he knew that Shuichi's mother was Ichinose Kotomi and how impressed his own parents were with the famed girl genius. But still why would anyone do something so important and amazing in this small town and in a city park?
"Believe it or don't believe it, but they're going to do it again." Yuki announced to the room in an effort to save her senpai, Kyou. She held up a bunch of forms and waited until all the kids were looking at the forms in her hand and wondering what it was all about. "These are permission slips to go on an overnight field trip with the whole class. If you don't think this is at least a little interesting, I can just throw these away." Yuki's hand dropped toward the trash can that was conveniently next to her right foot.
"No!" the class yelled as one.
"I want to see the ex-per-mint!" the first grade girl cried out.
"Me too!" several others agreed.
"All right! Here's what you'll need to do. I will need this permission form signed by all of your parents and you will need the things listed on the second page." Kyou told the now excited kids.
"Jacket and gloves? Why will we need that?" the fourth grade boy asked.
"If you look at the form, you'll see that the next experiment will be early in the morning on the nineteenth of October. That's almost a month away and we don't know what the weather will be like so you should have that ready because you might need it." Kyou explained.
.
A few minutes later, Yuki and Kyou sat across from each other at Kyou's desk while the kids were having lunch. The two adults were grading the tests and eating their lunch while also monitoring the room. That part wasn't as difficult as it had been in the beginning. There was nothing like success to make kids feel better about themselves. And when they felt that way, they were generally better behaved kids. Generally… they had been keeping an eye on Maiko since she arrived in their class, but it looked like her bullying days were over.
"I counted fourteen students." Yuki smirked while she pored over one of the tests.
"Fourteen? I'm only supposed to have…" she let the words fade away when she saw the girl in the Hikarizaka High School uniform sitting at the same table with Shuichi, Shuji, and Maiko-chan. Kyou chuckled. It was impossible to explain to Fuko that she couldn't have lunch with her niece and… it seemed that Maiko was even better behaved when she was there anyway.
"So, do you really think it's a good idea… taking them to the next experiment?" Yuki asked.
"Are you kidding?" Kyou almost gasped at her surprise from that question. Keeping her voice low, she said, "They're going to see that amazing light show and then four men just disappear! Along with all the other pomp and ceremony, I'm expecting to see thirteen kids that haven't got a clue what they want to be when they grow up – suddenly decide that they want to be scientists. I'm hoping that will keep their interest up in math and science for a decade!"
"That's a good plan, but what if something goes wrong with the experiment?" Yuki said with concern.
"That text message I got earlier. It was from Tomoya. Kotomi is getting better at sending them to… wherever it is that they go. And this evening or tomorrow morning we'll know if her people are getting better at bringing them back too. If we don't think it's safe for the kids, we can always cancel. But… I'd like to get everything set up for this field trip on the assumption that everything will be all right." Kyou defended her plan to enthuse these kids with a thirst for knowledge.
"Yeah… as long as we can cancel if something goes wrong. I guess it's okay." Yuki agreed.
"Now, all I have to do is convince the parents." Kyou said glumly.
"I really don't think that's going to be a problem." Yuki was in agreement with Kotomi on this point. In fact, from the conversations she had with several parents, and how positive they were about Kyou' program, Kotomi's projections were probably a bit too conservative. There's just no way we're going be able to keep this program to just one classroom next year.
.
Tuesday morning, September 21? - The Park across from the Furukawa Bakery (Alternate Universe 2)
"You're kidding, right?" Isamu asked Iwao in disbelief.
"Nope. Some dude lef his phone in his car an I gots da time an date offit easy." Iwao was happy with himself for being so observant - like Isamu and the Boss told him to. As soon as they were in the new place, he and Mikio walked around the edge of the park and tried to see what all was different. The most obvious thing that was different was that there was no-one around. Then they noticed the trucks weren't there either. That's when Iwao spotted the car parked on the street with one of the windows down. To his good fortune, a cell phone was laying in the passenger seat. Using a trick he had seen on a crime show, he picked up the phone with a napkin and pressed the button to see the time and date display. Then he put the cell phone back where he found it and continued walking around the park. So, if the phone was right, they had arrived very close to when they left… but they were still off by several hours.
"So, it's still the night of the 20th and we have to wait for six hours before even the bakery opens? Great." Isamu looked around at their situation. They were in luck in that the part of this park where the beach volleyball court should have been was overgrown with bushes and trees. They were all hidden quite well, and the sleeping bags were covered in a camouflage print, so… "All right, let's set alarms for 5AM and get some sleep… or at least try to."
"Boss, I drank three cups of coffee before we left. I don't think I can sleep." Takeshi whispered.
"We all drank coffee. Just do the best you can." Isamu whispered back. Then all four of the men froze.
The sound of mumbled voices and footsteps coming toward them could be heard through the bushes they were all hiding under. It was not good that someone was close to finding them so soon after their arrival. Then things went from bad to worse when the next sound they heard was a police radio.
"Unit 19 is at the park now." one of the cops said.
"What's this all about?" the other cop asked. He seemed to have a younger voice.
"Someone said they saw a drunk trying to get into a car parked on the street." the older cop replied.
"So what are we doing in the park?" the younger cop asked.
"Add it up. Drunk and park, right?" the older cop sounded more experienced and seemed to be lecturing the younger cop, "We'll probably find the drunk asleep in the park. Get it?"
"I see. So, we check the bleachers, dugouts, and park benches. Right?" the younger cop asked.
"Now you're getting it!" the older cop sounded happy that the younger cop had been able to figure it out on his own. Isamu could hear a congratulatory shoulder smack even if all he could see of the two cops was their shoes and a bit of their trousers.
"But, what if we don't find him in any of those places?" the younger cop asked.
"Simple, we just call for the dogs!" the older cop laughed.
Isamu could hear them both laughing as they walked away toward the baseball field.
Dogs? Oh shit! It seemed that all four of the men had that thought at the moment.