Chapter 38: Feminine trouble

11:32 AM (Japan Time), Friday July the 26th…

"… Ah… It feels good to stand here, at the dock's edge, and let the sea breeze fly through you… I feel like I can drown all of my problems there as well… Right, Andy?"

"Yeah. Today is a nice day. It ain't too hot for being the closing days of July either. But they say August will come with a heat wave and temperatures above 30 Celsius too."

"So! You really were here. Kage – kun!"

"Huh? Yikes! Sa… Sakurai – san!"

"Whoa!"

"You owe us a lot of explanations before I give you a lesson about what happens to guys who make a lady worry for ten months."

"Yikes! P-please, Sakurai – san… We can talk this like civilized people, right? Didn't Hikari – kun explain?"

"Yeah. But I'm not satisfied."

"I ain't either, Andy – kun! Loosen the tongue NOW."

"P-please wait, Roll – san…"

Kage had been sitting at one dock's edge and swinging his legs over the harbor's waters while chatting with Andy who was sitting at his right when Meiru (who sported her usual vest but had replaced the skirt and stocking by a pair of jeans and the shoes by sneakers) loomed over them while looking threatening, for once: Kage gulped and quickly stood up to try to calm her down while Andy did the same with Roll's hologram.

"To begin with! Why didn't you join our course if you've been here all along?"

"Didn't Hikari – kun tell you? I'm part of Golden Star! I had to devote too much time to this and I didn't want to involve Hikari – kun!"

"I thought he was involved."

"No! That's exactly what I've been trying to avoid! I don't want anyone associating him to us or having a reason to fear or despise him again: he's had a bad experience with that already. Didn't he tell you he'd been in the hospital before he began 1st year?"

"Yeah. But that was just that he'd fainted due to the heat and they wanted to make sure he hadn't gotten any illness."

"Oh. Well. I guess his father had to say it like that, but…"

"What? You mean to say there was another reason?"

"Agh! I shouldn't have said that. I'm betraying his trust. I can't say anymore: and if he won't talk upon it then he won't. The point is: we're working to bring stability to society and we're very close to ensuring this goal!" Kage argued back.

"You could've at least sent a postcard saying you were in Japan and that you were alive! Couldn't you?"

"I know, but I just wanted to avoid any contact with the class. I didn't want any of you to go through something bad because of me."

"Huh? Say that again?"

"I mean this: my uncle is a crazy Bitter Party man who tried to turn me into a racist and stupid man who would despise all cultures and nations outside of Ameroupe! I had to flee! He posted a bounty on me! That's when I stumbled upon Golden Star in Houston! They sheltered me and I contributed by telling them all I knew about my uncle and his political allies! Just look at what they've done to Chicago and Illinois! It's like a regression! Like a corrupt state!" He exclaimed.

"So you mean that… If your uncles' accomplices knew that you were in contact with us… They could use one of us as bait to lure you out of hiding? That's horrible!" She gasped.

"I know! And I insist: I did it for the whole school's sake! I cut all lines with everyone so as to not to drag anyone into this affair!"

"But… Can't anything be done about it?"

"We've already gotten information which will prove the machinations of the Illinois Bitter Party and we're waiting for the right moment to publish them: the public will have their suspicions confirmed and Washington will have to make a move or else even the UN will boil. When August comes and people find their liberty of movements restricted by those idiots more anger at them will be born… And then we'll give the information to ALL mass media of ALL AMEROUPE! They'll all know the truth! And nothing will save those idiots from public uproar!"

"A-alright." She nervously gulped.

"Sorry if I scared you but, sadly… It is reality, Sakurai – san. But I hope I can avoid a bad outcome of the whole deal too… Can you believe my own uncle would tell me I've disgraced myself just because I went out of the country and had contact with "the nation's enemies" plus learned a "decadent, inferior idiom"?"

"THAT's what he said?" Meiru gasped in horror.

"Yeah! And he beat me up and starved me saying he'd make me forget those things! But you don't "forget" because you want to! He tried to delete Andy because he said he'd been "brainwashed by the enemy to attempt into our Fatherland" and other crap! I hid from him and I finally got away by stabbing his knees! I ran off that place and using my funds I picked a plane to Houston. I picked that place because I'd gotten an email telling me to come there… An email from Golden Star…"

"By all the…!" She was white by now.

"Damn it! That fucking old man!"

Kage discharged a fist into a container nearby and panted as if he'd done too much effort and had to recover from it: Meiru timidly stepped back while Andy hung his head down: Roll was horrified by now too as told by her face.

"… Sorry. I just couldn't help it. I hadn't told anyone this yet. Not even Hikari – kun. It came out… and I had to discharge it."

"N-no… It's alright… I…"

"So! Miquel! As expected! That's your girlfriend, EH?"

"Oh come on…"

"Why is she here?"

"She followed you guys. I tried to tell her off but she wouldn't listen and I can't stop her unless she does something out of bounds…"

Tozukana had suddenly showed up while carrying her rifle and looking annoyed: Kage groaned, Andy cursed, Meiru and Roll looked puzzled while Lily was folding her arms and looked exasperated.

"So this little bitch here is the one who you screw every morning!"

"WRONG!"

"WHAT DID CHA SAY?" Meiru snapped.

"I KNOW IT!"

"I DEMAND PROOF!"

"WHO NEEDS PROOF ANYWAY?"

"MY LAWYERS WILL DEMAND TO SEE IT!"

"LAWYERS MY BUTT!"

"There you are! What are you doing now? What are these yells? Explain yourself! You broke the martial law too!"

"Oh shit!"

The "secretary" had caught up with them and she was visibly annoyed by now: Tozukana made a scowl.

"Ma'am! Are you her superior or tutor?" Meiru asked.

"I am a commanding officer." She confirmed.

"This… person… was accusing me… in a rude manner… without having any factual proof!" She hissed.

"Now you are in for a Hell. Breaking martial law, escaping the building, shutting down the communications line, accusing a civilian without any proof, trailing a member… President Hades and Vice President Noir will have to take a decision about you. I guess we shall have to retire you your membership and send you home for a while before we judge if you are worthy of being re-admitted." She hissed.

"You won't be able to do that, ugly." She defiantly replied.

"We can. And we will do. Golden Star's name cannot be stained because of just one idiotic member. We are so close to our goal and if we are to complete it then our reputation MUST be maintained no matter the cost it takes!" She increased her voice's volume.

"Sorry, Joanne – chan. But I'll have to drag you back to the HQ. You've done too many out of bounds things and you cannot be certified with being rational." Lily suddenly told her as she grabbed her left arm and began to pull her away.

"Let go of me you bribed Navi!"

"Do us a favor and be silent." She replied.

"Do drag them to the HQ and lock them in their room before we can begin an emergency meeting. Alright, Miss. There is no need to elucidate on those accusations because I can guess them. Kage. Is this person someone you know?"

"Yes, ma'am… A former classmate of me…"

"A companion of Hikari Netto?" She guessed.

"True, ma'am…"

"Fine then. I shall be going back. And please do not mind that member's behavior: they have an unusually high level of jealousy and that obscures their minds so they cannot think in a rational manner."

"Don't worry, ma'am, I guessed it at first sight. Please make sure they don't get away with it but don't blame the Navi. It was trying to stop them, after all." Meiru replied.

"Of course. That Navi knows how to behave and it is a pity it cannot further influence the Operator. Good-bye."

"Who was that? She sounded very commanding."

"Mr. President's secretary who also acts in his name if he happens to be absent or busy… I work for the Vice President myself."

"Hum. Let me guess: she wanted to have you as a younger boyfriend but you've made no reply so she's started to think there was some other girlfriend involved." Meiru deduced.

"Yeah. While it can't be denied that she's an excellent sniper yet she's got that jealousy with another member..."

"And she's picked you?"

"No. My buddy from the President Department… But this person, Ikadaa – san or the "Ice Queen", seems to be in command and just uses him for amusement without any… physical contact."

"Ah. Dominatrix, you mean."

"Huh? Eh… Do excuse me, Sakurai – san… But I thought that a person such as you was too young to know…"

"Heh! There's nothing which can stop me." She grinned.

"Is that so…?" He sounded surprised.

"So! How exactly are cha gonna bring "stability" to society?"

"By collecting information regarding criminals and forwarding it to intelligence agencies and police they can strike at them having relievable data and stopping them… Of course: all data used by normal civilians and such is not touched upon and not looked at… We use the same type of tagging system most agencies use when intercepting data…"

"I see. So you fish out data used or related to any type of crime and then forward it to the police so they can go and possibly intercept the criminals who are about to put their plans into motion… Sounds neat enough. And how can you do that big job?"

"Obviously enough… By using a super-computer…"

"So you've built a super-computer… Intriguing. Say. What kind of persons are there in the business?"

"Well… Zarashe: he's a smart guy and is skilled at lock-picking and knowing the weaknesses of any type of lock… Ikada – san: she's good at disguising and collecting information… Qong: a Japanese living in Sri Lanka who was raised as child soldier… Another sniper… Suzuki – san: works at the DNN as make-up assistant… Agoras… Maybe you remember him from that day Hinoken showed up next to the school… That detective fellow…" He listed with a smile.

"Ah yes. I remember. Netto told me the day after that."

"Do you have a lot of Navis?" Roll asked.

"Yes. Some of them are old familiar faces. But they have their memories reset to a blank state so they don't remember if they did anything bad in the past… The one exception is Freeze Man…"

"Freeze Man! Gospel's Freeze Man? He's back?"

"Calm down, Roll – san! He is back but has redeemed himself: and he was just following orders back then so it was nothing personal."

"Ah! Alright… If you say so…"

"Other Navis include Slur – sama… She is extremely powerful and the most powerful of Golden Star… The supreme authority… She was a trustee of Serenade and she was one of the persons who started the project of Golden Star… Here's a photo…" Andy continued.

"She looks like a woman to me… A female commander, huh? Feels like it's the 21st century, yeah!"

"My superior is Legato: he looks like Blues but he's more friendly and all compared to Blues."

"Aha. Say… You aren't using a hologram, right?"

"No. I'm using a robot body named "Copy Roid"…"

"Whoa! So you've figured out how to materialize Net Navis?" Roll sounded intrigued.

"Correct! We're also researching on how to bridge the gap between both worlds and advance towards a society where Navis can co-exist with humans. But please keep this a secret, Roll – san. Were dangerous parties to know of it then there'd be a mad race to get their hands on them and start all kinds of new crimes."

"Gotcha."

"Hmmm…" Meiru seemed to be thinking of something.

"Is something the matter, Sakurai – san?"

"No, not really, but…" She trailed off.

"We'll make sure such an incident doesn't happen again. You have our word on the matter." Kage quickly told her.

"No. It wasn't about that…"

"If it's about Hikari – kun, we meet from time to time and I'm explaining things to him… He'd heard of them from Ijuuin Enzan anyway so… And we have also punished some bad guys by shutting down their businesses and letting the police catch them." He added.

"Say. This may sound like too much of a personal question but…"

"Yes? What's the matter?"

"You're a still a rookie?"

"Oh no. I'm no rookie. We get gun training and self-defense training from a former double agent…" He laughed.

"No, I didn't mean as an agent or such…"

"I can use a tranquilizer gun and my aim is perfect."

"I didn't mean that either. Think 'bout it…"

"Oi, oi… Meiru – chan. What are you plotting?" Roll asked.

"Don't worry! All's under control."

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Roll warned.

"You're too pessimistic! I got neat scores in all of my subjects and they were all over the 6 mark!" She tried to shoo the topic away.

"I insist: I don't like where this is heading to."

"Eh… If it's about advice regarding whom to pick as a couple then I'm afraid I can't be of help…" Kage timidly warned.

"You a virgin?"

"HUH? Excuse me?" Kage gasped.

"Oh. Come on. That's something private! You don't have any right to assault him with such a question. I don't mind that myself. They have all the rights to make their choices in life."

"Lemme have some fun." Meiru merely replied.

"This isn't "fun"! This is more like "bullying"!" Roll scolded her.

"Well?" Meiru ignored Roll and confronted Kage.

"Eh… Well… T-that's… Hum… But… I'm not obliged to… reply to such a question, Sakurai – san…" He timidly blurted while looking away and being obviously too nervous to properly reply.

"Yeah. Please leave my Operator in peace. He's had to go through too much pressure from others before." Andy grumbled.

"Nope! I won't give up."

"Oh come on! Now who is the one who isn't behaving in a civilized manner?" Roll complained.

"Don't be so stiff." Meiru shooed her away.

"I am sorry, but I simply cannot answer to such a question. Do not insist, Sakurai – san, because… Huh!"

"Hey! What are you doing, Meiru – chan?"

"Aha-hah! What's this ring then?"

"Yikes!"

Meiru had suddenly rummaged in his coat's right pocket to take out his golden ring with the initials "K. O." engraved on it colored silver: Kage gasped while Meiru grinned.

"KO? I'll remember that. I only have to ask a favor out of Yaito – chan and we'll find out what kind of girl she is."

"Eh, but, KO is just… The civilian name of…"

"Oh! So they have another name?" Meiru loomed closer.

"Chut!" Andy warned Kage.

"I mean, you've never heard of "Knock Out"?"

"Yeah. And you're going to make me believe you like it so much that you bothered to make this ring which you've been toying with the whole time since I showed up." Her grin grew wider.

"Oh man. I'm in trouble." He muttered.

"Sure you are… And if it turns out to be a leech then… There's gonna be a girls' fight… You'd be better off doing your job and waiting until the outcome is reached…" She warned.

"Meiru – chan! Be realistic!" Roll complained.

"Have this back. And see cha around… Hoh, hoh, hoh!"

"MEIRU – CHAN! YOU BAKA~!"

Meiru vanished from sight and Kage slapped his face in defeat while Andy sighed and closed his eyes as if venting his bad mood.

"Girls. First Tozukana – san, now Sakurai – san… Why do they always have to pick on these things? Do they need to know that to survive?"

"I'll never understand that mania, really!"

Both of them slapped their faces in defeat…