NOTES:

1. WARNING: English is not the author's firt language

TAIJU'S FIRST SECRET

"I still think you need to remind Senku-kun to eat his breakfast," Yuzuriha reminded as Taiju was in the middle of putting on his shoes. The young man, now frozen, looked up to his now official girlfriend of 2 years.

Yuzuriha sent a worried glance towards the hallways on Taiju's right, "Senku-kun tends to skip breakfast when he's working on a project".

"He was still sleeping last I checked," Taiju half whispered. In fact, they both had started speaking in hushed voice ever since Taijuu found out their science-obsessed friend had finally succumbed to sleep after working in his room for three consecutive days.

Yuzuriha stood just beyond the threshold of the condo. She gripped the holder of her tote bag and pouted, "We should still remind him again".

"Right," Taiju answered instantly before pulling his shoes off and went back inside the condo. The door was at the end of the hallway. Taiju was half running there, although he made sure he used his tiptoe to assure the least amount of noise. Once there, he turned the knob slowly and peeked inside. "Senku?"

The low hum of the air conditioner answered. It was already 9 am yet the room was pitch dark thanks to the blackout curtains that covered the floor to ceiling window facing the bed. The room was kept clean despite having an owner whose life is sporadic (thanks to Yuzuriha); the only sign of discord was on the bed where said owner was asleep under the dark duvet cover with his back to the door in the exact same pose Taiju had seen him in last night when he checked on Senku and turned off the light. He looked dead, thought Taiju, but anyone who knows Senku well enough would expect this from Senku whenever he took a break from a huge project.

Taiju tiptoed into the room and looked around just in case he needed to take care of something. To the left of the door was a study nook where Senku's spacious L-shaped desk was at. Senku was very careful with his work space so even this area was tidy. The three huge monitors on top of said desk were all on sleep mode. A huge part of the desk was left empty; although it would be a different story once Senku felt like tinkering on something. On the wall behind the desk was shelves full of books. Between the study nook and the door was a tall compartmentalized shelf where Senku kept his collection of Legos and small tools.

Everything looks good, Taiju thought though he pushed the gaming chair closer to the desk just to make double sure everything was neat. He then put one hand on Senku's double bed and carefully, as silent as he could, reached out to the headphones still latched to his friend's head with his other hand. He took it slowly while making sure that Senku stayed asleep. The music was loud even though it was from a headphone which Taiju quickly turned off. He then touched the other's upper arm, "Senku?" He called just enough to get the other to hear him.

Senku grunted in his sleep.

"I'm going to leave the house. Don't forget your breakfast, okay? It's in the microwave. Yuzuriha prepared it for you so make sure that you finish it; otherwise Yuzuriha will be so sad," Taiju reminded. When Senku didn't make any noise, Taiju looked closer at the back of his friend's head, "Senku?"

Then there's a louder groan that sounded closer to an irritated 'mm-hmm'.

"That's the spirit!" Taiju pointed a thumb, although he kept his voice hushed. "Okay so I'll get going now. Rest well, Senku!" Taiju pulled the cover up to his friend's shoulder and slowly tiptoed out of the room (not forgetting to put the headphones on the desk, of course). "See you tonight!" Taiju whispered for the last time before he closed the door.

When he went to the condo's entryway, Yuzuriha was poking her head from just outside the opened door. "How is he?" She asked.

"Still sleeping!" Taiju grinned and raised a thumb again as he put on his shoes.

Yuzuriha waited patiently and led the way down the hallway to the elevator, "All right then; let's go!"

Taiju had been friends with Senku ever since he could remember. They both had been in many adventures (or, perhaps in most cases, misadventures) together since they could walk and Yuzuriha joined not long after they established a science club back in middle school.

Of course, befriending the young genius was a unique experience in itself. Senku was the least affectionate person on planet Earth and it was hard to see whether he considered you as anything but a mere plankton. However, Taiju knows best how Senku showed his attentiveness to others. Out of everyone, the only other people who understood this were Byakuya and Yuzuriha; and even then none understood Senku like Tauji did.

In fact, Taiju would go as far as to say that he considered Senku as his own brother.

"We still cant tell Senku-kun, Taiju-kun," Yuzuriha warned softly in the middle of taking the cakes out of the display.

Taiju groaned, "Aaaah, but this is the longest time I'm keeping something from Senku, Yuzuriha".

"We still cant!" Yuzuriha insisted, albeit still with her soft voice.

"Oi, Taiju, stop flirting with your girlfriend and clean your station!" their manager, Kohaku, a beautiful woman with an attitude and strength to boot, scolded from behind the front desk. Taiju jumped and professed his apology before dragging himself to the cocktail bar. It's closing hour in Cafe Olivier, but that didn't stop Kohaku from being strict.

Taiju sighed from behind his station and started cleaning. It was business as usual in Cafe Olivier, yet it was not like that at all under the surface.

You see, Cafe Olivier was a front for Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency consisting of junior agents. Taiju and Yuzuriha were two of them. Some of the waiters were also junior agents. Taiju had confirmed that the sisters; Ruby, Garnet, and Sapphire; were. Meanwhile, Kohaku was a higher-rank junior agent in charge of leading them. Kinro and Ginro, each working at the coffee station and the cashier respectively, were in the same batch of agent training a couple of years before Taiju and Yuzuriha. And last but not least, Magma, who was in the kitchen, was also a junior agent in the same rank as Kohaku.

Taiju remembered how he and Yuzuriha got scouted into the intelligence junior agent training program. They were still in high school back then and was preparing for university entrance exam. Around that time, they decided to apply to the same scholarship together. It was a rather peculiar scholarship for it looked for such specific requirements for its candidates. He and Yuzuriha got accepted, only to be redirected to the junior agent training program instead. The training itself was not a rigorous affair. Back when they were only getting started; the most they did was attend this daily self defense class. Sometimes they had to attend seminars; but that was not a common occurrence. The Agency even asked them to keep a day job and not say a word about the true nature behind their trainings.

Still, this was the only thing in his life Taiju was actively keeping away from Senku. Perhaps Senku had an inkling of what was going on; he was pretty sharp after all. Yet, back then, Taiju barely felt any guilt because Taiju could simply say that he worked as a deliveryman and that would hold mostly true. Most of what he did back then was just roaming around Tokyo doing errands; such as delivering packages and sending emails from different computers around the city. Sometimes they were told to go to places or meet people that they will never see again. But once the mission is done, you don't speak of them anymore and you don't care to see how the order you carried influence the outcome of anything.

To put it simply, they did what they were told without knowing the bigger picture behind of those orders and that made it barely feel like a profession.

However, the longer he went with this job, the more instructions he received and the more involved he got. At some point, it became impossible to just dub himself as a delivery guy; especially when the Agency started putting Taiju to work alongside other agents and sent him a direction to leave his previous day time job to work at this cafe.

This was the first time he and Yuzuriha were put together with other agents for a long term arrangement. This time, he and Yuzuriha knew they were no longer the Agency's errand boy or girl. They were now a part of something big - although they had yet have an idea what this thing was.

Kohaku was straightforward with them since day one about who she was and how everyone else in the cafe were fellow agents. She, however, deliberately left out the part that explained why they all gathered there in the first place. Moreover, having a head junior agent in the vicinity would mean instructions received would be more direct yet more complex. Both Taiju and Yuzuriha were told to join judo class from a certain dojo (where they say a lot of agents trained). Yuzuriha was even told to learn baking and Taiju was put to a bartending lesson.

"Okay everyone! Payment time~," Kohaku called to one of the tables. She plopped herself to one of the seats and crossed one leg over the other. The rest of them stood around the table. It was days like this where Taiju hoped Kohaku would finally reveal something about their mission. But it was usually when Kohaku looked like she was about to say something that she actually ended up not.

"Kinro, Ginro, Yuzuriha," Kohaku called one by one before giving each one their respective weekly salary in brown envelopes. This would include their agent work salary, of course; for it was safer to be paid in cash. "Taiju," she finally called before slapping the envelope on the space in front of Taiju.

Some of them had started opening the envelope and counted what was inside.

"Inside is the face and name of our person of interest," Kohaku smiled. Taiju blinked. Finally! He quickly opened his envelope and checked what was inside. The bartender found a picture of a handsome man with chiseled face and long brown hair. A name was scrawled behind the picture.

Shishio Tsukasa, 25.

Taiju's brows met as he tried to figure out the person in the picture. What did this person do to attract the attention of the national intelligence service? He stole a look at his co-workers to find Ginro gaping at the picture and Kinro looking rather rather taken-aback yet still collected in general.

"T-this person! I've seen him in a movie once!" Ginro's eyes were wide, "What is he guilty of?"

"Suspected leader of an anti government organization," Kohaku stated.

"There's an organization like that here in Tokyo?"

Kohaku sighed, "Like yourself, I am also a junior agent. I only receive instructions from the senior agent above me. As of now, this was the only thing we know about our mission. More information and instruction will be given to us soon".

"There has to be more than only one person of interest," Kinro added.

"Yes. I was told we will be watching more than just one person and this will require joint effort from all of you," Kohaku eyes them one by one, "As for the organization, I -," Kohaku paused so suddenly that they all looked up to see her. Right next to her, Magma was standing with a shake of the head.

"It's not time yet for such briefing. We will continue on another day," the burly man disrupted. Kohaku nodded in agreement.

"He's right. You've got your homework; go home and make sure you actually complete it. I'll hear from you guys tomorrow, okay?"

Taiju noted how Yuzuriha looked interested in the picture overall. She looked like she had an idea who the person in the picture was. It was then that Taiju fell to a depressing conclusion, 'Am I the only one who doesnt know who this is?'

A short trip to the supermarket and a shower later, Taiju ended up sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor of The Ishigami's lush condo with his phone in hand. He was on Instagram to look for further information on this Shishio Tsukasa. Apparently, the guy was famous.

'A star athlete in high school, two times judo champion, and an honor student. He decided to leave his athletic career and entered the world of showbiz after graduating from high school,' Taiju noted down in his head dutifully, 'He starred in some action movies and did his own stunts in most scenes. Despite that, he is much more successful in his modeling career which has brought him to places in Europe. He still enjoyed martial arts and boxing as a hobby; and owned a high end watch and accessories shop in Shibuya'.

"Ah!" Taiju exclaimed once he found an additional note, "How did he even manage the time to get a degree in political science?"

"Who did?"

Taiju looked up and found his best friend joining him on the floor around the coffee table with a towel around his neck. He must have just left the shower. "This guy," Taiju showed the Instagram account on his screen, "Shishio Tsukasa".

Senku hummed absently while paying more attention to his phone. The guy took a tortilla chip from the coffee table before he said, "He did".

Taiju perked up, "Y-you know him?"

"He was in my philosophy class," Senku said in the middle of tapping at his phone screen.

"P-philosophy class? Don't say…., he was in Toudai!?" Tokyo Daigaku or known internationally as University of Tokyo was Japan's most prestigious university and one of the world's best. Senku was accepted to study there when he was only 16 and had just graduated there with a double degree in an engineering degree and neuroscience at the age of 20 - a pretty hectic life for someone so young; which was probably the primary reason Byakuya asked Taiju to move in to their resident so someone could be there and watch over his adopted son.

Still, to Taiju's knowledge, only the intellectual elites were capable of entering Toudai. Senku being an example for that. This Shishio person must be very intelligent.

Senku was now giving him a suspicious dirty look, "Don't tell me…, you fancy him or something?"

"W-w-what!? No - nonono! I was - I was just curious that's all! Ummm, Yuzuriha told me he's around the area a lot so I figured I should find out more about him!" Taiju scratched the back of his head and forced a laugh. He could not let Senku know he needed to gather intel on this person!

"Right, I see him passing by our café a lot," Yuzuriha appeared with a huge tray consisting of small plates for their Sukiyaki. She then arranged all of them around that he nabemono (hot pot) that taiju had set in the center of the table alongside clean bowls, chopsticks, and ladles. Yuzuriha then sat with them, "Although, lately I heard he's been busy doing some modeling work abroad".

"Y-yeah," Taiju chimed in carefully as to not make Senku suspicious. Senku could be very sharp. The guy was sending Taiju a questioning glance; but shook it off. He started distributing the bowls to everyone Taiju turned on the small stove and prepared the sukiyaki base. Yuzuriha was busy finding a movie on the huge smart screen

"So what are we watching?" Senku asked.

"Dr. Stone," Yuzuriha chirped. Senku visibly cringed. "What's wrong?" Taiju commented on Senku's reaction. Yuzuriha laughed.

"Oh, it's the movie Shishio Tsukasa starred in!" She informed. She clapped a hand and asked the home AI system to turn off the lights before helping them putting the ingredients to the pot, "All right, now for the star of the day; the home made udon and premium beef~!" she half sang.

"We're so lucky to have Byakuya's friend sent us these, Senku!" Taiju exclaimed with full excitement. He just loved meat!

Senku, on the other hand, was scowling at the hot pot. He stirred at the content halfheartedly. 'Something is up with these two idiots,' he thought.

After dinner; Senku went to clean up while Taiju took Yuzuriha to the door. The bigger guy went to his room first, leaving Senku to tidy up whatever mess was left. They did distribute the chores as evenly as possible although Senku was the least skilled in housekeeping.

The young man entered his room at about 10.30 and was already thinking of playing that video game he last played a week ago before he went on his 3-day working-spree. He was only 10 minutes into the game when the computer announced that he had an incoming call. Groaning, he paused the game and clicked answer on his screen right.

He proceeded to give a grouchy, 'hnn,' to his headphone as a greeting. The person on the other end chuckled, "Missed me?"

Senku snorted, "You wish. My friends tortured me with that movie of yours at dinner".

"Which one? Your favorite?"

"No, the first one".

"Aaaah, Dr. Stone".

A small smile grew on Senku's face as he relished on the other's voice. He slowly lowered his game controller onto the desk and waited curiously for the other. Usually, he would have an interesting proposal for the night.

"So," the person on the other end started, "What are you wearing?"

Senku's smile turned to a smirk as he rested his back on his seat and crossed his arms, "Wanna see?"

"Sure".

And so Senku turned on the webcam.

TO BE CONTINUED