The next morning Natsuki rushed into school, cursing the fact that she had missed her alarm set for 7am after falling asleep at 5am. Luckily for her, Midori did not mind as she was only a few minutes late and Chie waltzed in even later than she did announcing that she had been busy with the Student Council. Natsuki managed to dodge questions from Mai, Chie and Midori as to why she had a cut on her face by telling them that she had banged her head on a cupboard door in the dark and then practically had to fend Mai off with a mop when it spontaneously started bleeding. The rest of the school day went by uneventfully and as soon as the bell rang to announce the end of school, Natsuki waved off offers to go with her friends to eat at Linden Baum's and hurriedly tracked down a certain afro-sporting member of staff.
Sakomizu was tending to a flower bed when Natsuki found him and before she had got within two metres of him, he called out, "Ah, Kuga. How can I help?"
Natsuki realised that he had seen her approach through the reflection off of the windows of the school greenhouse.
"Just wondering how you were doing…" Natsuki managed to come up with a fairly convincing lie.
"Hmm… do you miss me already?"
"Oh, please…"
"Or perhaps you need some help with schoolwork?"
Natsuki threw him a dirty look, which Sakomizu caught as he looked up at her to see if she had reacted to his last comment, and grinned.
"If not, then what's the occasion?" He asked as he continued watering the flower bed.
"I was just… you know, reminiscing about the old times." Natsuki phrased carefully as she studied Sakomizu closely to gauge a reaction. He glanced up at her and replied quietly, "The old times… are probably best forgotten, Natsuki."
Natsuki shrugged, "Well, that's easier said then done."
"I know, but you've got to let go and move onto better things in life. More productive things."
"Like gardening?" Natsuki asked dryly.
Sakomizu chuckled, "Yeah, actually… I took this up to try and make my hands forget all that dirty work I did and instead use it to create and nurture life."
He looked back at his handiwork, "Now that I'm only employed by this school to be just a teacher and not a spy or anything else… I enjoy what I do."
Natsuki nodded and while continuing some small-talk, she tried again a couple of times to subtly ask Sakomizu for any information he had but it was already clear to her that he had been left out of the loop by the First District and even if he had been approached, it seemed likely that he would have refused the job.
And as far as Natsuki could tell from her observations, where she had to embarrassingly hide in a tree like a common stalker, Ishigami-sensei was too busy doting over his precious pregnant Yukariko to be returning to the First District any time soon. However, just to be safe, she had Yamada do background checks on all members of staff, including the two aforementioned, and the results were that nobody had any ties with the First District or Searrs.
It had been just over a week since Natsuki's first clash with Searrs and already she felt as if she was running out of leads. She hated trying to move blindly against her enemy yet she knew that the deeper she got into that world, the further she would drift away from her now 'normal' life. So far she had been a dutiful student – attending all classes, handing in assignments on time and being quiet in class. She now wondered how long that façade would last as her phone began buzzing with, "Unknown" lighting up the screen. Picking up, she stayed silent.
"Yamada." A deep voice rumbled through the ear-piece.
"Kuga." Natsuki replied, trying to hide her relief.
"I've got some crumbs if you're interested."
"Really? Where?"
"Same place."
"Be there in twenty."
Natsuki pushed her latest homework aside and grabbing her new leather jacket (which albeit was not nearly as expensive as her last and neither was it a special edition of any kind) and her modified holsters, she ran down to her Ducati.
Rorschach Bar was still smoky and full of filth as ever, and the familiarity of the place had given Natsuki quite a kick in the gut when she realised where most her youth was spent, or misspent. This being her third visit in the space of ten days, the guilt and discontent over the matter was almost too easily pushed aside and knowing that she had arrived early, looked around before quickly darting towards a nearby alleyway.
Keeping her hand closed over the handle of one of her guns inside her jacket, she crept in. Seeing nobody around, she still kept cover behind dumpsters while her grip loosened around the Glock 19 and quietly leaping up, she latched onto the last rung of a fire exit ladder that had been locked away before pulling herself up and heaving herself onto the platform.
'Damn, I'm out of the game for only a few months and I already feel out of practice…' She groused in her head as she sought higher ground. Again satisfied that she had not been tailed and that there was no ambush lurking (yet) she clambered down and sauntered into the bar. Throwing her customary 'Kuga-death-glare' at any foolish soul who moved within a metre of her, she settled on a bar stool and without looking to her left, spoke in a tone just audible over the buzz in the room.
"So, what've got for me?"
Yamada let out a deep breath of cigarette smoke before he slid some papers held together by a paperclip towards her.
"Searrs recently bought an abandoned research facility in Fuuka – one that was owned by Iwasaka Pharmaceuticals. And it seems like there's a hurry to move into the facility. There have been reports of a number of cargo ships docking in the area and a few military transport helicopters have been moving in and out of the airspace in the region."
"Has anybody seen the cargo?" Natsuki asked as she flicked through the pages.
"Nothing but boxes. And they all have FDU stamped on them."
Natsuki's eyes fell on a blurred picture of one of the helicopters that had landed and immediately recognised the uniform of the personnel caught moving out. Searrs had brought along part of their private army.
'But for what purpose? To protect or to invade?'
"I know there are a lot of things you want to know, but you know what happened last time. Searrs have people everywhere. If you want answers, we're going to have to tread in deeper shit." Yamada added as he watched Natsuki flicked through the papers again. She flicked her eyes towards him and finding no bitterness in the emeralds, he knew that his client had forgiven him for his betrayal – after all Searrs pretty much had him at gunpoint when they had 'negotiated' the terms of sparing his life if he sold out his client.
Natsuki let out a short sigh and put the papers away. She had been expecting this. She was going to have to start digging through, as Yamada so poetically put it, 'deeper shit' herself.
"So, this research facility… it wouldn't have any blueprints on the black market would it?"
Yamada smirked at her question, "I knew you'd ask, so I took the liberty of looking for one. Should arrive in 3 days."
"Good. And see if you can find a way of stealing computer data without being traced."
"Got it."
Natsuki took out a small envelope and slid it across the table to Yamada, who subtly picked it up and tucked it away without even looking up from his beer. As soon as she had seen him take his pay, she slid off the bar stool and made her way to her Ducati and back home, her mind filled with too many questions. It looked like it was going to be another sleepless night.
The next few days were slower and gave Natsuki the chance to think back and realise how quickly things had changed. Just as she was getting used to a quiet 'normal' life, Shizuru suddenly wanted nothing to do with her and then the next minute she was back in the life she thought she had left behind with the Carnival. She tried not to think about what could have happened to Shizuru that night, had she not got rid of the agents.
However, there was a small voice inside her head that kept asking if she was jumping to conclusions, whether all that she had seen and heard were misunderstandings and coincidences; or whether she was just paranoid and suffering from some twisted hallucinations from her past traumas. She sighed and continued cleaning and oiling the parts of her Glocks.
Natsuki had been getting used to the guns by sneaking down into the sewers whenever she could and practicing on cans, beer bottles and anything else that she could get her hands on. She was proud of her choice as they fit well in her hands and the recoil was close to her old ones, although she did sorely miss having guns that could disappear when not needed and did not need to be reloaded every so often. She swiftly pieced together the field stripped guns and returned them to her holsters.
Recently, she had taken to always having at least one firearm on her as well as at least one of her knives. She even kept a few spare weapons hidden in strategic locations in her flat, such as the complementary SIG that she kept under her pillow or the knives taped to the underside of the coffee table she was currently sitting at. She suddenly let out a yawn and stretched languidly, grunting in satisfaction as a couple of joints popped in reply. She reached over to her satchel and checked that she had completed all of her assignments before jumping slightly as her phone began vibrating the entire table.
Growling in annoyance at being caught unawares, she picked up.
"Kuga."
"Yamada. I got your blueprints."
"Great. Did you check out the road-blocks?"
On one of Natsuki's sleepless nights, she had ridden her motorbike as close as she could to the new Searrs facility and found official roadwork signs and cones blocking off pretty much all of the routes that could give any passers-by a view of the comings and goings of the facility.
"Yes. As we suspected they were all either fake or enforced with hints of bribery. We're up against some clever boys and girls, Kuga. And rich ones at that."
"I know." Natsuki replied curtly, once again feeling the irony of the situation that she was living off the money paid by the very conglomerate she was currently trying to thwart.
"I also have a contact in a notorious hacking group and they've offered their best technology for hacking without leaving a trace, for a ridiculously good price."
"Great. What's the catch?"
Yamada chuckled, "Woah, aren't you sharp? Well, there are two catches. The first is that you have to plug this device into the hardware directly."
Natsuki sighed inwardly. She was going to break in to have a look around anyway but this drastically changed her plans. "And the second?"
She heard a muffled clicking sound and assumed Yamada was lighting his cigarette.
"They made a bet on a motorcycle racer losing a race."
"Uh-huh. And that affects me, how?"
"You have to enter that race tomorrow night and make sure they lose."
Natsuki raised her eyebrow, "It's an underground race, isn't it?"
"Yup. I'll hand you the race and your opponent's details with the blueprints."
"Do I even get to use my own bike?"
"No. They've got a sponsored Kawasaki ZX-10 they want you to ride."
"Typical."
"I'm on my way to pick it up now, if you want to have a look at it."
Natsuki glanced at the clock and realising how late it was, decided that it was going to be a long night.
"Yeah, I want to check that it's actually rideable."
"Alright, Kuga. Do you remember where you bought your stuff from Kenji?"
Natsuki paused in struggling into her jacket using only one hand, "Well enough."
"Meet there, the old garage had some cops sniffing around recently."
"Got it. See you in thirty."
"Roger that."
Natsuki hung up and taking out all of her finished assignments, found a scrap piece of paper and scribbled a note on it before taking both with her as she left the apartment, after making sure that she had locked all possible entrances and that she was armed.