Chapter3
Bam wham Bam Dunk!
Fuko jumped into the air as she scored a basket
" All right!" she yelled. " The score's 54 to 50. I'm leading you by 4 points Recca!"
" Yah yah. just watch, I'll have you trailing before you know it." Recca replied, dribbling the ball over to the pole, waiting for the right moment to charge in and score. Fuko blocked waving her arms above him, her face and body slicked with sweat. She had been playing basketball with Recca for the past three hours already, though none of them seem about to tire yet. Recca grinned and faked a left, and twisted around to the right, dunking the ball in the basket. Still grinning, he tossed the ball over to Fuko who gave him the thumbs up sign and caught the ball deftly in one hand.
It was then she noticed Tokiya. He was standing at the side of the court watching the both of them play. Fuko turned and waved to him, beckoning him to come over and join them. Tokiya shook his head, pointing to Koganei who was standing right beside him.
Upon seeing Koganei, Fuko forgot everything and ran towards him.
" Koganei!" she cried. " It's been a while. You're so tall now!"
" And a Romeo from what I see." Recca remarked, as he came over towards them.
" Hey, I want to play too, why don't we play two on two?" he glanced up at Tokiya for his answer. Seeing no other way out, Tokiya shrugged. " Ok, why not." He conceded. He removed his coat and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
" I'll team up with Recca, so Mikagami, you team up with Fuko all right!" Koganei decided, rushing over to join Recca, before either of them could vice their objections. Fuko looked over at Tokiya and shrugged.
"0k, fine with me. She replied.
Tokiya had the ball first. Skillfully, he dribbled the ball inside the circle, getting past Recca and Koganei, then he flipped the ball high enough to where Fuko was and she easily popped it into the basket.
Smiling, she tossed the ball over the Recca, who caught it and tossed it over to Koganei who started dribbling it over to the net. Tokiya blocked him, and Koganei flipped the ball under his legs, catching soon after and flipped the ball over to Recca who tried to dribble to the net, but was blocked by Fuko. Recca aimed for the net, but missed as the ball bounced off the hoop, and Fuko caught it deftly. Sporting Tokiya outside the ring, she threw over to him and he dribbled it in, and was caught unawares by Koganei who was jumping all over him and trying to distract him. He lost the ball and Recca and Koganei scored.
The game continued on for about one hour, then Recca announced that it was time to go back to his place for dinner, that the game finally came to a halt. All four players were sweaty and trooped back to the benches to cool down.
" That was one workout." Fuko declared, wiping the sweat over from her face.
" Yeah come on, Yanagi should have had dinner ready by now. Better get there before that pig Domon eats it all up." Recca answered, swing his shirt onto his shoulder. At age 23, Recca certainly hadn't changed much, though his body had grown and he was an adult, but the familiar crop of hair and plaster was still there. Koganei was taller, and had trimmed his hair down a bit. He no longer carried around the adamantine blade as he used to. There was no need for that anymore. Tokiya. Fuko glanced at him. Tokiya still looked the same. The long silvery hair was still there. The expressionless face. The cool way in which he carried himself, it was the same old he.
At Recca's place, Fuko took a quick shower, tossing aside her sweat drenched T-shirt and shorts. She put on a fresh pair of pants and shirt and emerged outside, relegating the bathroom to Koganei, who wanted to shower as well. Tokiya, Domon, Recca were all in the living room watching television when Fuko came out, toweling her hair.
" What's this?" she asked, scooting over to see what was on the screen. She wasn't surprised to see that it was a basketball match. She went inside the kitchen where Yanagi was putting the finishing touches to the Teriyaki chicken that they were having for dinner.
" Wow, that looks good Yanagi. Shall I help you take that out?" she asked
" Why thank you Fuko. " Yanagi replied.
" Aw, it's nothing. whoa!" she called out, as Shoji playfully ran past her, spreading his wings like an aeroplane.
" Shoji." Yanagi called out, as Fuko moved safely out of the way and into the dining room.
" Dinner's ready!" she called out as she set the food down on the table.
All at once, the men assembled at their seats, including Koganei who has just hastily put on a pair of jeans and a shirt.
Once Yanagi, Shoji and Miyuki were all seated, dinner began, and dinner conversation was mostly focused on Fuko
" So Fuko! Did you see the statue of liberty there?" Recca asked, food in his mouth
" Yep. It was one of the first things that I saw when I went there."
" So what, you stay in your own apartment? I heard that it's very expensive to own an apartment in New York!" Domon exclaimed
" Well, the company gave me an apartment to stay in." Fuko replied with deliberate caution. Her job was supposed to be secret, and no one, not even her closest friends were to know about it.
" You said that you work in an advertising company right! What advertisements have you come up with?" Koganei asked
" Well, for drinks, cosmetics, clothes." Fuko ventured, giving them the most basic stuff that she could think of. She cast a sideways look at Tokiya, but he seemed to be concentrating on his meal and nothing else. Fuko knew otherwise.
Working with him at the agency at been a challenge for the past two days. On the first day, she had done an overview of the city and cut down the number of street celebrations from ten to two. This of course, had sparked immediate outrage from Mr. Kubota, who explained that with the festivals coming along, it would be very hard to cut down on so many street parades.
" Would you prefer half the population to be killed then." She had asked with an icy tone.
" No of course not." Mr. Kubota had replied, " But what I mean is that."
" What Sir is trying to say is that Japan prides it self on its festivals. By cutting down from ten festivals to two, it would be inflicting a lot of inconvenience for many industries especially the tourist industry." Tokiya had answered then in an equally icy tone.
" So what do you supposed we do then." Fuko then asked
" We can impose restrictions on the number of people attending, or limit to parades to a few streets and have surveillance while the parades are going on."
Even Mr. Kubota had agreed with the idea, nodding his head in agreement.
And yet, as Fuko thought about it now, she realized how hasty she had been in preventing disaster. She had given little thought to the cultures and traditions of the government. Her time away from Japan had indeed changed her a little. Whereas for Tokiya, she half suspected that he had learnt the greater importance of teamwork.
" Recca, I need to talk to you about my order later." Tokiya said to Recca over the dinner conversation
Recca's face turned serious as he heard this, and nodded. " Of course."
Fuko frowned as she heard the exchange between Recca and Mikagami. What in the world was going on between them? As if in answer, Tokiya turned to her and nodded. Fuko gave a questioning look, but Tokiya refused to reply to her.
After dinner, Recca motioned them into his study and locked the door behind them. He went over to his desk and took out a piece of paper from the drawer.
" I could only find three names. Other than your family, I could only find three others, that have inherited physic devices from their ancestors. I have yet to detect anyone else holding a device. Let us hope for now that these are all that have left. The Hokage created hundreds of physic devices, but I know that we destroyed many too. I hope that you'll be able to find out some leads about the man that you're looking for. "
" Recca, Tokiya, what is all this about? " Fuko asked, entirely confused up to this point.
" I enlisted Recca's help in finding out all about the number of people living in Japan who currently own a device. We need to know if Len Larson has any friends here or not."
"Why wasn't I told of this!" Fuko demanded, feeling angry that she had been left out of this.
" Relax Fuko. We were going to tell you tonight, that's why Tokiya asked you to follow him."
" One more thing Recca, I need you to find information about a certain device. It's called the dark web, I have a picture of it over here."
Tokiya produced a picture from his pocket. Fuko was even angrier to see that it was a picture from her laptop. Recca pocketed it and nodded.
" I'll find out whatever I can. In the meantime, be careful." His gaze was directed to Fuko as he said this. Fuko swallowed hard, giving Recca a slight smile in order to assure him.
" I'll be fine. Don't worry." She added, as an afterthought.
Recca went towards her and put his arms on both her shoulder. He stared into her eyes for a while, and then he said
" You've had it tough Fuko. I can see it. I know that you're a strong girl, but there's a limit to what you can endure. Len Larson took a lot out of you, didn't he?"
" I can manage. I'll catch him this time for sure." Fuko replied steadily. As she said it, her mobile phone rang; it's ring tone echoing throughout the study. Fuko tore her gaze away from Recca and with one motion; she had it to her ear.
" Kirisawa." She informed the listener.
" I see that you made it to Tokyo. I was hoping that you would make the trip."
Fuko's face turned ashen white as she heard the caller's voice. Grappling the phone with both hands, she demanded.
" What are you planning now Len?"
The caller gave an almost hysterical laugh.
" It's going to be very interesting Fuko Kirisawa. Will I make my 16th and final attempt, or what will you stop me? You've failed 12 times so far. Do you think that you can succeed this last time?"
" I will get you." Fuko said quietly and firmly " No matter what it takes, I will get you. I'll make you pay for all the horrible things that you have done."
" Oh dear, we shouldn't start being so cocky just yet Fuko Kirisawa. The game has just begun. The intelligence system was easier to crack than I thought. You surprised me. I would have thought that you would have set up traps like you did before. Are you giving up now? I sure as well don't want you to. It would spoil the game."
With that, the phone went dead, and Fuko quietly ended the call. Turning around, she said
" We need to get back to headquarters. We'll stop by my place for my computer."
Without giving any explanation, she strode towards the door, Tokiya by her side. Fuko forced a smile onto her face as she saw Yanagi.
" Yanagi dear, I'm really sorry, but my office just called, and it's really urgent. Tokiya has offered to give me a lift, so I'm afraid that he'll be leaving with me too. I'm really sorry, that I had to cut short the evening, but it was a great dinner, and I'm sure that we'll have other chances to have a meal together again."
" Oh! But we hardly got to talk." Yanagi started to protest, but Recca cut in.
" No dear, we wouldn't want to hold Fuko up right. You know how bosses are in the advertising line, so many deadlines to fill."
Yanagi nodded in agreement, and sighed " Oh well, at least we got to meet, I'll get your coats."
Fuko turned to Recca. " Thank you Recca, for everything." She said to him. Recca nodded in understanding. Without wasting another minute, Fuko turned to the door, where Yanagi was waiting for her and Tokiya with their coats. Fuko kissed Yanagi on the cheek.
" It was a wonderful dinner. Recca must be so lucky to have you as a wife." Yanagi blushed as she heard this.
" Yanagi, it was a pleasure as always." Tokiya said, smiling and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Fuko smiled as she saw Recca scowl behind.
Once the two of them got out of the lift, it was a frantic rush to the car. Tokiya started the engine with a turn of the key, and within three seconds, they were speeding towards Fuko's apartment."
" What happened?" Tokiya demanded.
" Larson called my cell. He's already hacked into the system at headquarters. We need to make sure that he hasn't left any backdoors or warning viruses behind."
" You're not telling me something. How does Larson know you?"
" I chased him from New York remember. I've been on his case ever since. He's my nemesis. He's been playing this cat and mouse game with me ever since London. It's all a game to him, and a source of fun and challenge while he goes towards his actual goal."
" So you do know him personally. Has he always called you before he pulled the shot?"
There was a brief pause before Fuko answered.
" Yes."
" I knew it. Why didn't tell us all this? Did you think yourself so capable that you would be able to catch him easily?" Mikagami demanded angrily as he swung the car sharply into the apartment compound and braked right in front of the lobby. " Has going abroad changed your way of thinking or what!"
Fuko cringed at the first time of seeing Mikagami so angry. Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to keep his cool. And yet at the same time, she was feeling angry herself, that Tokiya has accused her of not cooperating with headquarters.
" That's not true!" she began hotly, " The reason I didn't tell you is because I came here secretly. After China, I figured out his true destination, and I began to plan for it. Therefore, it came as a big surprise, when Taiwan was struck first. After that, I threw away everything and took the first plane to Japan. Larson was not supposed to know that I was here. But, headquarters must have entered my data without my permission. It was my mistake and I'm going to pay the price for it."
" We. the whole of Japan is going to pay the price for your over confidence, do you mean to say." Tokiya replied.
Fuko paused, midway in the process of getting out of the car.
" Yes, I suppose that you could say that it's my fault."
Without waiting for Tokiya's reply, she got out of the car and strode over to the lobby. Minutes later, she emerged from the lobby carrying her laptop case and an overnight bag. Her face was somewhat composed and had this cool expression on it. She got into the car, tossing her things into the back seat.
" You may want to pick up some stuff too. I've a feeling that it's going to be a long night."
" I was planning to." Tokiya replied, as he set the car into gear.
Silence took over in the car after that.
Bam wham Bam Dunk!
Fuko jumped into the air as she scored a basket
" All right!" she yelled. " The score's 54 to 50. I'm leading you by 4 points Recca!"
" Yah yah. just watch, I'll have you trailing before you know it." Recca replied, dribbling the ball over to the pole, waiting for the right moment to charge in and score. Fuko blocked waving her arms above him, her face and body slicked with sweat. She had been playing basketball with Recca for the past three hours already, though none of them seem about to tire yet. Recca grinned and faked a left, and twisted around to the right, dunking the ball in the basket. Still grinning, he tossed the ball over to Fuko who gave him the thumbs up sign and caught the ball deftly in one hand.
It was then she noticed Tokiya. He was standing at the side of the court watching the both of them play. Fuko turned and waved to him, beckoning him to come over and join them. Tokiya shook his head, pointing to Koganei who was standing right beside him.
Upon seeing Koganei, Fuko forgot everything and ran towards him.
" Koganei!" she cried. " It's been a while. You're so tall now!"
" And a Romeo from what I see." Recca remarked, as he came over towards them.
" Hey, I want to play too, why don't we play two on two?" he glanced up at Tokiya for his answer. Seeing no other way out, Tokiya shrugged. " Ok, why not." He conceded. He removed his coat and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
" I'll team up with Recca, so Mikagami, you team up with Fuko all right!" Koganei decided, rushing over to join Recca, before either of them could vice their objections. Fuko looked over at Tokiya and shrugged.
"0k, fine with me. She replied.
Tokiya had the ball first. Skillfully, he dribbled the ball inside the circle, getting past Recca and Koganei, then he flipped the ball high enough to where Fuko was and she easily popped it into the basket.
Smiling, she tossed the ball over the Recca, who caught it and tossed it over to Koganei who started dribbling it over to the net. Tokiya blocked him, and Koganei flipped the ball under his legs, catching soon after and flipped the ball over to Recca who tried to dribble to the net, but was blocked by Fuko. Recca aimed for the net, but missed as the ball bounced off the hoop, and Fuko caught it deftly. Sporting Tokiya outside the ring, she threw over to him and he dribbled it in, and was caught unawares by Koganei who was jumping all over him and trying to distract him. He lost the ball and Recca and Koganei scored.
The game continued on for about one hour, then Recca announced that it was time to go back to his place for dinner, that the game finally came to a halt. All four players were sweaty and trooped back to the benches to cool down.
" That was one workout." Fuko declared, wiping the sweat over from her face.
" Yeah come on, Yanagi should have had dinner ready by now. Better get there before that pig Domon eats it all up." Recca answered, swing his shirt onto his shoulder. At age 23, Recca certainly hadn't changed much, though his body had grown and he was an adult, but the familiar crop of hair and plaster was still there. Koganei was taller, and had trimmed his hair down a bit. He no longer carried around the adamantine blade as he used to. There was no need for that anymore. Tokiya. Fuko glanced at him. Tokiya still looked the same. The long silvery hair was still there. The expressionless face. The cool way in which he carried himself, it was the same old he.
At Recca's place, Fuko took a quick shower, tossing aside her sweat drenched T-shirt and shorts. She put on a fresh pair of pants and shirt and emerged outside, relegating the bathroom to Koganei, who wanted to shower as well. Tokiya, Domon, Recca were all in the living room watching television when Fuko came out, toweling her hair.
" What's this?" she asked, scooting over to see what was on the screen. She wasn't surprised to see that it was a basketball match. She went inside the kitchen where Yanagi was putting the finishing touches to the Teriyaki chicken that they were having for dinner.
" Wow, that looks good Yanagi. Shall I help you take that out?" she asked
" Why thank you Fuko. " Yanagi replied.
" Aw, it's nothing. whoa!" she called out, as Shoji playfully ran past her, spreading his wings like an aeroplane.
" Shoji." Yanagi called out, as Fuko moved safely out of the way and into the dining room.
" Dinner's ready!" she called out as she set the food down on the table.
All at once, the men assembled at their seats, including Koganei who has just hastily put on a pair of jeans and a shirt.
Once Yanagi, Shoji and Miyuki were all seated, dinner began, and dinner conversation was mostly focused on Fuko
" So Fuko! Did you see the statue of liberty there?" Recca asked, food in his mouth
" Yep. It was one of the first things that I saw when I went there."
" So what, you stay in your own apartment? I heard that it's very expensive to own an apartment in New York!" Domon exclaimed
" Well, the company gave me an apartment to stay in." Fuko replied with deliberate caution. Her job was supposed to be secret, and no one, not even her closest friends were to know about it.
" You said that you work in an advertising company right! What advertisements have you come up with?" Koganei asked
" Well, for drinks, cosmetics, clothes." Fuko ventured, giving them the most basic stuff that she could think of. She cast a sideways look at Tokiya, but he seemed to be concentrating on his meal and nothing else. Fuko knew otherwise.
Working with him at the agency at been a challenge for the past two days. On the first day, she had done an overview of the city and cut down the number of street celebrations from ten to two. This of course, had sparked immediate outrage from Mr. Kubota, who explained that with the festivals coming along, it would be very hard to cut down on so many street parades.
" Would you prefer half the population to be killed then." She had asked with an icy tone.
" No of course not." Mr. Kubota had replied, " But what I mean is that."
" What Sir is trying to say is that Japan prides it self on its festivals. By cutting down from ten festivals to two, it would be inflicting a lot of inconvenience for many industries especially the tourist industry." Tokiya had answered then in an equally icy tone.
" So what do you supposed we do then." Fuko then asked
" We can impose restrictions on the number of people attending, or limit to parades to a few streets and have surveillance while the parades are going on."
Even Mr. Kubota had agreed with the idea, nodding his head in agreement.
And yet, as Fuko thought about it now, she realized how hasty she had been in preventing disaster. She had given little thought to the cultures and traditions of the government. Her time away from Japan had indeed changed her a little. Whereas for Tokiya, she half suspected that he had learnt the greater importance of teamwork.
" Recca, I need to talk to you about my order later." Tokiya said to Recca over the dinner conversation
Recca's face turned serious as he heard this, and nodded. " Of course."
Fuko frowned as she heard the exchange between Recca and Mikagami. What in the world was going on between them? As if in answer, Tokiya turned to her and nodded. Fuko gave a questioning look, but Tokiya refused to reply to her.
After dinner, Recca motioned them into his study and locked the door behind them. He went over to his desk and took out a piece of paper from the drawer.
" I could only find three names. Other than your family, I could only find three others, that have inherited physic devices from their ancestors. I have yet to detect anyone else holding a device. Let us hope for now that these are all that have left. The Hokage created hundreds of physic devices, but I know that we destroyed many too. I hope that you'll be able to find out some leads about the man that you're looking for. "
" Recca, Tokiya, what is all this about? " Fuko asked, entirely confused up to this point.
" I enlisted Recca's help in finding out all about the number of people living in Japan who currently own a device. We need to know if Len Larson has any friends here or not."
"Why wasn't I told of this!" Fuko demanded, feeling angry that she had been left out of this.
" Relax Fuko. We were going to tell you tonight, that's why Tokiya asked you to follow him."
" One more thing Recca, I need you to find information about a certain device. It's called the dark web, I have a picture of it over here."
Tokiya produced a picture from his pocket. Fuko was even angrier to see that it was a picture from her laptop. Recca pocketed it and nodded.
" I'll find out whatever I can. In the meantime, be careful." His gaze was directed to Fuko as he said this. Fuko swallowed hard, giving Recca a slight smile in order to assure him.
" I'll be fine. Don't worry." She added, as an afterthought.
Recca went towards her and put his arms on both her shoulder. He stared into her eyes for a while, and then he said
" You've had it tough Fuko. I can see it. I know that you're a strong girl, but there's a limit to what you can endure. Len Larson took a lot out of you, didn't he?"
" I can manage. I'll catch him this time for sure." Fuko replied steadily. As she said it, her mobile phone rang; it's ring tone echoing throughout the study. Fuko tore her gaze away from Recca and with one motion; she had it to her ear.
" Kirisawa." She informed the listener.
" I see that you made it to Tokyo. I was hoping that you would make the trip."
Fuko's face turned ashen white as she heard the caller's voice. Grappling the phone with both hands, she demanded.
" What are you planning now Len?"
The caller gave an almost hysterical laugh.
" It's going to be very interesting Fuko Kirisawa. Will I make my 16th and final attempt, or what will you stop me? You've failed 12 times so far. Do you think that you can succeed this last time?"
" I will get you." Fuko said quietly and firmly " No matter what it takes, I will get you. I'll make you pay for all the horrible things that you have done."
" Oh dear, we shouldn't start being so cocky just yet Fuko Kirisawa. The game has just begun. The intelligence system was easier to crack than I thought. You surprised me. I would have thought that you would have set up traps like you did before. Are you giving up now? I sure as well don't want you to. It would spoil the game."
With that, the phone went dead, and Fuko quietly ended the call. Turning around, she said
" We need to get back to headquarters. We'll stop by my place for my computer."
Without giving any explanation, she strode towards the door, Tokiya by her side. Fuko forced a smile onto her face as she saw Yanagi.
" Yanagi dear, I'm really sorry, but my office just called, and it's really urgent. Tokiya has offered to give me a lift, so I'm afraid that he'll be leaving with me too. I'm really sorry, that I had to cut short the evening, but it was a great dinner, and I'm sure that we'll have other chances to have a meal together again."
" Oh! But we hardly got to talk." Yanagi started to protest, but Recca cut in.
" No dear, we wouldn't want to hold Fuko up right. You know how bosses are in the advertising line, so many deadlines to fill."
Yanagi nodded in agreement, and sighed " Oh well, at least we got to meet, I'll get your coats."
Fuko turned to Recca. " Thank you Recca, for everything." She said to him. Recca nodded in understanding. Without wasting another minute, Fuko turned to the door, where Yanagi was waiting for her and Tokiya with their coats. Fuko kissed Yanagi on the cheek.
" It was a wonderful dinner. Recca must be so lucky to have you as a wife." Yanagi blushed as she heard this.
" Yanagi, it was a pleasure as always." Tokiya said, smiling and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Fuko smiled as she saw Recca scowl behind.
Once the two of them got out of the lift, it was a frantic rush to the car. Tokiya started the engine with a turn of the key, and within three seconds, they were speeding towards Fuko's apartment."
" What happened?" Tokiya demanded.
" Larson called my cell. He's already hacked into the system at headquarters. We need to make sure that he hasn't left any backdoors or warning viruses behind."
" You're not telling me something. How does Larson know you?"
" I chased him from New York remember. I've been on his case ever since. He's my nemesis. He's been playing this cat and mouse game with me ever since London. It's all a game to him, and a source of fun and challenge while he goes towards his actual goal."
" So you do know him personally. Has he always called you before he pulled the shot?"
There was a brief pause before Fuko answered.
" Yes."
" I knew it. Why didn't tell us all this? Did you think yourself so capable that you would be able to catch him easily?" Mikagami demanded angrily as he swung the car sharply into the apartment compound and braked right in front of the lobby. " Has going abroad changed your way of thinking or what!"
Fuko cringed at the first time of seeing Mikagami so angry. Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to keep his cool. And yet at the same time, she was feeling angry herself, that Tokiya has accused her of not cooperating with headquarters.
" That's not true!" she began hotly, " The reason I didn't tell you is because I came here secretly. After China, I figured out his true destination, and I began to plan for it. Therefore, it came as a big surprise, when Taiwan was struck first. After that, I threw away everything and took the first plane to Japan. Larson was not supposed to know that I was here. But, headquarters must have entered my data without my permission. It was my mistake and I'm going to pay the price for it."
" We. the whole of Japan is going to pay the price for your over confidence, do you mean to say." Tokiya replied.
Fuko paused, midway in the process of getting out of the car.
" Yes, I suppose that you could say that it's my fault."
Without waiting for Tokiya's reply, she got out of the car and strode over to the lobby. Minutes later, she emerged from the lobby carrying her laptop case and an overnight bag. Her face was somewhat composed and had this cool expression on it. She got into the car, tossing her things into the back seat.
" You may want to pick up some stuff too. I've a feeling that it's going to be a long night."
" I was planning to." Tokiya replied, as he set the car into gear.
Silence took over in the car after that.