Chapter 16- A Leader's Thoughts
The great amount of activity that had taken place during the day had now given way to a warm quiet evening. Crickets chirped everywhere and you could hear the soft croaks of frogs at the pond near the cabin. You could see ever single star in the sky and the full moon glowed a pale yellow color and was the only illumination outside the buildings of the complex. Tetsuo and Akira were still locked up inside the kitchens of the dojo and they intended to stay there until the big surprise had been completed. Over at the rear living quarters that Kai had fixed up Kei had made everyone some dinner using several bento boxed lunches that she had taken from the dojo before Akira and Tetsuo had locked themselves in. Kaneda was all set to head back to Neo-Tokyo in the morning and there really was nothing else to do until the new arrivals came. So while everyone ate they talked about what their new arrivals would think of the place, what they'd be doing when they got there and of course how they might react to Tetsuo and to certain people's ever growing psychic powers.
Takashi: "…are they nice?"
Kai: "Yeah they are usually okay. They like to shoot their mouths off a little bit though."
Kaneda: "I 'aint gonna lie, they can be jerks sometimes. But you can always count on them to watch your back. Trust us kid, they are really gonna liven this place up!"
Colonel: "Great, that's just what we need around here…a bunch of rowdy teenagers smoking and drinking and doing god knows what!"
Yama: "I'll have you know that one of them went to A.A meetings for six months."
Frost: "Is that supposed to reassure us? 'Cause it is not helping."
Kiyoko: "We at least it will not be boring. Having more people here will be fun. They can tell us about all of the things that Masaru, Takashi and myself have missed out on. We all have a lot more freedom now and I for one wish to have fun with it. I'm going to expand my mind and learn more about the world."
Valerie: "Hear hear!"
Kei: "So what will you be up to Valerie?"
Valerie: "Hm…that's a good question Kei. I'm not sure, maybe I could be the mechanic around here. There are plenty of things in this place that will need fixing."
Colonel: "You could be the maintenance worker around here. Do you know how to fix water pipes and broken roofs?"
Valerie: "Of course, I took all sorts of trade courses at college."
Kaneda: "Nerd!"
Valerie laughed and threw a riceball at Kaneda's forehead. It struck with perfect accuracy, not only making a mess of Kaneda's forehead but causing him to fall back a little and hit the back of his skull against the wall. Unfortunately the bento boxed lunch he had been holding was now airborne. Everyone else could only watch as it sailed through the air and splattered against the back of the door.
Kai: "I just finished cleaning up in here you dumbasses!"
Masaru: "Oh do be quiet, this is very funny!"
Kai: "Why don't you go and look for some vanishing cream?"
This behavior continued on until 11:38 PM when Yamagata stated that he was tired and wanted to go and get some sleep. Everyone agreed to hit the hay now, especially Kaneda who had a long ride ahead of him in the morning. Now, at 11:53 PM everyone in the rear living quarters had settled into their beds and slowly letting sleep overtake them. The Espers were asleep almost immediately, their beds lined up close together underneath a small window. Soon the pale moonlight was streaming through the glass lightly illuminating their slumbering forms. In fact there was only one person left awake in the entire complex. Kaneda had snuck out of bed and walked barefoot through the grass outside the living quarters, clad in a simple white t-shirt and jean shorts. He felt very tired but he just could not sleep. Kaneda had a lot on his mind, and these thoughts left him with feelings of worry. He was nervous about how the gang would react to everything that had taken place and how their lives would soon change. Also, did he have the right to take them away from their home and drag them to the complex? And if and when they began to develop powers of their own, would they choose a violent path to use them? Sitting down at the pond bench Kaneda sighed and stared at the moon, letting those troublesome thoughts roll around in his mind, mulling over any possible answers to his own questions. He began to mutter to himself…
Kaneda: "Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Nobody here, not even Akira will ever be that powerful again. I can't say that they'll do what Tetsuo did; everybody reacts differently to new things. They'll be a little freaked out at first I'll bet. And besides, those guys are my friends too. I am not leaving them to waste their lives in that rat hole. At least here they'll stand a chance of living a better life. Who needs all of that big city crap when we can stay here and really enjoy ourselves and put ourselves to some good use. Heh, and all our teachers said we wouldn't amount to a thing! I can just imagine the looks on the guys faces when I come for them in the morning…"
After taking a few minutes to stare at the water, which rippled slightly as several large koi swam close to the surface Kaneda headed back to the rear living quarters for some sleep. He was really looking forward to seeing the rest of his buddies again. Not counting himself, Yamagata, Kaisuke and Tetsuo there were five other members of the original Capsules. Yuusha, who had a habit of dyeing his hair a pale blue. Tsubasa, an even bigger guy then Yamagata who didn't speak very much. Mikomi, known in the gang for being very blunt and often saying things that he really should keep to himself. And then there was Ashita and Dosei, who were together as much as Yamagata and Kaisuke. They made a pretty good team, seeing as how they always rode together in a two seater. The last time Kaneda saw the two of them Dosei had tried to knock out the leader of the Clowns by jumping onto his moving bike and clubbing him with his pipe. Joker just knocked Dosei over and ran over his arm. Thank goodness he got to a hospital before Tetsuo had the accident that had started all of this. Taking one last look at the moon Shotaro Kaneda walked in, gently closed the door and dropped on his bed and slept, not even bothering to pull the covers over him.
Name Translations
Ashita: Tomorrow
Dosei: Saturn
Mikomi: Hope
Tsubasa: Wings
Yuusha: Hero
(I don't know if the other Capsule members are named in the manga, so please bear with me.)