Chapter 3
"No, Bright, you have been told many times that you are not allowed to propose cross tests." Twenty Five sighed into his phone, Kommando 10 and Kommando 11 giggling the entire time. "No, not even if Kondraki says so. Clef doesn't count either, neither does Rights or Junior Researcher James, he's eight, Bright. Please, just let me attend this meeting." Twenty Five stated before hanging up and throwing his phone on the table.
"What'd he say this time?" Ten begged, her hearty laugh barely contained. "Something dumb I suppose?"
"He wanted to throw his stupid amulet thing on a Shadow and see what happens." Twenty Five stated, sighing as he did so. "Don't have to be a genius to know how dumb that is."
"Ah give him a rest, Two Five." Eleven began, his tone casual and somewhat unprofessional. "He's immortal, that really does a number on ya, I would know."
"What? What do you mean you would know?" Amagi asked.
"Most of us in Kommando are anomalous, Two Five didn't tell you?" Eleven stated.
"No, he didn't tell any of us." Satonaka responded.
"In short, the members of Kommando Insurgency all come from a group of anomalous and normal individuals in a military setting." Twenty Five explained. "For instance, Eleven is a quantum immortal. Any situations where he can die typically result in his survival through unlikely circumstances. For instance." Twenty Five pulled his revolver from his jacket and fired three times. None of the shots went off. Opening the revolver, Twenty Five revealed it was completely loaded and functional, the first three shots having been fired before.
"Woah, what other anomalies are there in Kommando?" Hanamura asked.
"Well, Kommando Twenty Four has a third eye on the back of his head and One can make noises no human should be capable of making." Twenty Five explained. "As for myself, I have a degree of clairvoyance."
"You can see the future?" Narukami asked.
"Yes, but it's not effective." Twenty Five answered. "I can only see five seconds at most into the future, and I can't control it. It's typically only going to happen at particularly disadvantageous times, like if I'm about to be attacked or an enemy is preparing to. It saved my life a few times, enough for the Foundation to know about me long before I offered my services. Now, enough about Kommando, let's get this meeting together."
"Oh right!" Hanamura exclaimed. "Let's begin the first meeting of the Inaba Special Investigation Team!"
"Christ, c'est comme un anime." Ten giggled, speaking with intentionally broken French. Twenty Five responded by having Ten sit at attention.
"Now then, Twenty Five has business he wants to address." Hanamura stated, allowing Twenty Five to stand.
"I'll keep it brief." Twenty Five opened. "I'm extending what Services Kommando will offer. If needed, you will have access to Kommando Ten and Kommando Eleven. They're a pair of, quite frankly, annoying twins who are the best shooter and spotter we have respectively. That is all. Ten, Eleven, you are dismissed." Twenty Five sat back down.
"Now for what we know about the case." Narukami continued. "So far, the victims are the following: Mayumi Yamano, Saki Konishi, and Yukiko Amagi, who we saved. The only link I have so far is that they're all women."
"Not the only one." Hanamura stated. "I looked back at the news, they were all connected to the first victim."
"That's true, Hanamura." Twenty Five stated. "Konishi was found dead after identifying the body. And Amagi, you were accommodating Yamano at your family's inn."
"That's right! I remember they sent a police officer to protect her!" Amagi stated, grabbing her instant fried tofu as she stood up to make her point.
"Oh, and they all appear on the Midnight Channel too!" Satonaka added. "Like a prior warning or a ransom note!"
"So it's all females who are connected to the murder and appear on the midnight channel. It's a good starting theory, let's see if it holds true." Twenty Five stated.
"By the way, shouldn't your noodles be ready by now?" Hanamura stated.
"Oh! You're right!" Satonaka stated, opening her noodles, alongside Amagi. The two ate their noodles, Yu and Yoskue looking on with avarice. To make a long story short, Hanamura and Narukami, who were to be granted but a single bite of the ramen, wound up eating all of it. This resulted in the meeting being spontaneously moved to Junes. It was there that the team confirmed their thinking, and obtained a little bit more information, from quite the unlikely source.
"Oh man, looks like they updated the menu!" the voice of young detective Tohru Adachi suddenly called out. Twenty Five turned to face the detective. He heard a report about him from Agent Kawahara. He's young, and brilliant, but very naive and doesn't apply himself. He was perfect for fishing for information.
"Oh, what are you doing here Adachi-San?" Narukami began. It seemed he had the same idea as Twenty Five.
"Oh, uh, I'm on break right now, eheh." Adachi nervously laughed. Adachi was clearly slacking off from work, acting like a young teenager playing hooky from school.
"Hey, can you tell us anything about the case, Adachi-San?" Satonaka asked. Adachi looked even more nervous.
"Well, we don't have much to go off of. Oh, but, uh, don't worry, we're working hard to make sure that we catch the killer, so don't worry about a thing! Please don't tell Dojima-San I said anything." Adach responded, visibly sweating. "I better go now." Adach ran off, completely ignoring any attempts to address him.
"Wow, the police really can't do anything." Satonaka murmured.
"On dirait que les flics sont incompétents." Twenty Five sighed. "You're damn lucky we found out about you all. You clearly would not have gotten any help from the police. Well, let's leave information to your source. I'll contact you all again soon."
"Eh not quite time to leave yet, we still have to take Yukiko to the TV." Hanamura stated. Twenty Five nodded.
"Good opportunity to plan a route for an expedition." Twenty Five mused. "Very well, let's go." The team guided Twenty Five and Amagi to the TV, climbing in when the coast was clear (and when the cameras were looped). Twenty Five once again found himself in SCP-7870. It was quite the enthralling sight to see that hellscape once more, fog covering the world pierced only by a pair of thin aviators on his face, monsters creeping throughout the fog ready to ambush unsuspecting victims. The kids introduced Amagi to Teddie, while 25's mind wandered elsewhere. He was focused and setting up expeditionary equipment, getting a small FOB set up at the entrance, setting up mile markers for what little perimeter was had in the TV world, and trying to figure out how the hell the glasses worked. If the Foundation wants an understanding of SCP-7870, they'd need equipment specifically for operating within the anomaly. Goggles made to function like the glasses would work, but teams would need to be limited to short expeditions with no combat engagements to prevent exhaustion. In addition to-
"BWAHAHAHA OH THESE ARE GREAT!" Amagi suddenly burst out, ripping Twenty Five's attention away from his setup. "OH MY GOD THEY EVEN HAVE A LITTLE NOSE PIECE OH MY GOD! CHIE, CHIE PLEASE TRY THESE ON!" Amagi then all but forced Satonaka to put on the admittedly strange glasses Teddie offered her. Chie looked, quite frankly, completely ridiculous in the classic gag glasses, leaving Twenty Five to suffer through stifling a laugh. Admittedly, Twenty Five had a rather juvenile sense of humor. It wasn't his fault, it was the fact that in his various training sessions with the different groups he's been a member of, he was not allowed to laugh, making everything a hundred times funnier. He did his best to hide the fact that he found gag glasses funny. Fortunately, he succeeded, keeping the illusion to the kids that he was more of a hardened soldier than anything else.
Twenty Five sighed as he set down the last of the twenty five crepes he had just made. Tonight was the first time Kommando Insurgency would see what the midnight channel truly was. They had already seen the blurry images it produces, and the blank screen following a rescue, but they were yet to see how it put a person's feelings on display.
"This is the last time I'm making crepes for twenty four other mercenaries, mon dieu, plus jamais." Twenty Five sighed before taking a bite of his own crepe. The only reason he was making this was because the rest of the team wanted something to enjoy while viewing this once-in-a-lifetime anomaly. At least, that was the official reason. In actuality, Twenty Five enjoyed cooking. It was not so well kept secret that Twenty Five loved to be at a grill or a stove making food for any reason at all, at any time. Midnight struck, and Twenty Five lit a cigarette as the TV came to life. The programming was, uh, well, Twenty Five was certain this was illegal. When it was all over, he could tell the others were ready to burst out into laughter.
"Not a word." Twenty Five hissed as he picked up his phone. "Narukami, what the hell was that?"
"I'm not entirely sure myself." Narukami admitted. "But this does mean we need to rethink our theory, sorry, Twenty Five."
"Don't be." Twenty Five stated. "There's a reason why Foundation scientists always do more than one test with the same parameters. But uh, yeah, let's reconvene in the morning. We're definitely going to want to talk about that. Mon dieu…."
"Copy that." Narukami teased. "Meet at Junes tomorrow." Twenty Five snapped his phone shut.
"Twenty, start gathering information about Tatsumi Kanji." Twenty Five ordered. "We'll need whatever we can find. I have a feeling this is going to be more complicated than we think."
A/N: We gotta talk. I wasn't ready to release this chapter, but I felt like I had to. I've been seeing alot of reviews practially demanding an update, and I don't really appreciate it. I get it, you want more, but please don't leave reviews asking me to update, it's actually pretty counterintuitive. When I see these reviews, I feel like people only care about the fic, not the person behind the keyboard, and it's hard on my already pretty poor mental state. I'm going through alot right now, and I'm working on 7 fics and planning an actual novel right now, on top of classes, so I won't be updating super frequently. If want to get a status update, please PM me and respectfully ask how the progress is. I'm more likely to adress that than a review that's basically ordering me to update, and it makes me feel better. Well, I hope you enjoyed, I'm sorry for lacking updates recently, and have a great day!