The Black Whispered
Chapter 4 – Lies
Location: MITHRIL heavy transport helicopter, somewhere above the North Pacific Ocean.
Time: 04:30 hrs (+10 hrs GMT)
Date: March 11th, 2006
The sun was starting fade the out the night sky and become a new day; when in the mist of blackness a single helicopter roared through the calm evening sea. Inside were two tired passengers and an Arm slave being taken back to Merdia Island. As for Sousuke, at 04:00 hrs departure was calling it close if he was to be able to simple walk into to school like a normal student. Given the time-zone differences, he was given a slight advantage, but it all depended on the speed of the helicopter.
For Sousuke at the moment, his promise to be back by the morning was coming into fruition, in that time, he had the other promise of protecting Theresa if or when she decided to take this extended leave from MITHRIL. Also at this very moment, Sousuke was taking down the new shopping list of things Kurz wanted,
"…can you get me another 30 boxes of them, 4 of those, an entire set of them…ohh! You've got to get me that!"
It didn't really interest Sousuke, all he did was take Kurz's money, go buy this stuff and take it back with him on his next mission. Simply speaking however, Sousuke and a few superior officers on base were getting a little annoyed about the quarter ton crate of luxuries and other things. But Kurz wasn't making only his order anymore; people all over the base were ordering stuff through Kurz, which explained the Sousuke the quantity of the list, also there were some various names on this list of people that Sousuke didn't really notice, one in particular was in fact Captain Theresa Testarossa.
"Have you got that down?" Kurz asked again
"Yes, as long as you have a list I can follow it shouldn't be a problem"
"Well make sure you get everything"
"Is that the only reason why you came along with me?" Sousuke asked as he stored the 3 page list in his backpack.
"No, I came to ask you where you were between 21:30 and 22:44 hrs: Kurz spoke like a police officer.
"The Captain requested I join her in her private quarters" Sousuke replied straightly. Kurz both annoyed he didn't deny it was at the same time a little curious as to what Sousuke did with Theresa.
"What did you to get up to?" Kurz wishing for the most unlikely outcome; but knowing Sousuke, he wouldn't have. Even if Theresa ordered him to, he probably would've consulted a manual or some book.
"I talked to the captain about the possibility of herself going on an extended leave to Tokyo, similar to that last occasion"
"Really now…" Kurz was slightly board of that reply. Kurz however inside was sprung with joy; he never managed to take a picture of Theresa in the female high school, and was overload desperate to see Theresa in that swimsuit he and a bunch of other guys recommended that she wear on her last visit.
"Weather she'll stay with me, or other arrangements will take place is unknown as of yet, but Captain Testarossa said she'd go to Admiral Borha for permission instead of Commander Mardukas"
"The chief of MITHRIL's operations department? That crazy, if he knows; they'd send Tessa out with a whole squad of Arm slaves for protection!"
"The captain said that she'd be able to convince them to let her go on a break"
"Whatever man, seriously you need to stop calling her by rank, just call her Theresa or just Tessa, I do, and I know she wants you to?"
"Captain Testarossa has permitted me to only call her by her first name only when alone and im in her company"
"Oh…this just keeps getting better and better" Kurz spoke. The problem with Sousuke was he didn't know when he shouldn't tell someone something. It seemed unless they said it was classified information; Sousuke would tell who ever asked him, disregard the effects it would have on himself or Theresa. But this didn't worry Kurz; so far his luck in this matter hadn't failed. However, before their discussion could reach any further, a man walked in from the cockpit.
"Hey you two, buckle up and get ready, were about to land" spoke the co-pilot
"Understood"
The helicopter started to make its decent and make its approach towards a half-moon shaped landform known as Merdia Island.
Location: Tokyo Jindai Municipal High School, Tokyo
Time: 08:10 hrs (+8 hrs GMT)
Date: March 11th, 2006
The rainy weather had cleared up slightly since the evening, it was still a dark grey sky hovering over the Tokyo area, with the chance a typhoon may form sometime in the next few days. It felt like doom for the start of the weekend. However the thought was quite the opposite at Tokyo Jindai Municipal High School, a lot of the student were tired of studying for the mid terms and other exams, a weekend break felt like a miracle from above.
"Morning Kana-Chan" Kyoko put on her best smile to Kaname
"Ah, Morning Kyoko-Chan" Kaname spoke; apparently unaware of Kyoko's real thoughts. Inside her mind were one of two things; finding Shinji sleeping on the couch, and the apparent scream fest when both Kyoko and Shinji had forgotten about their little agreement for a few seconds. The second thing came to her mind about a minute after Kyoko had whacked Shinji half to death with a phone book.
Those twenty photographs; all of them a painful strike into her mind a reality she had not known. That last photograph in particular; Sousuke was an Arm Slave pilot? And Kurz and Melissa; didn't they say they were University Students? And yet there they were with 'Captain' Theresa Testarossa in front of the rumored ARX-7 Arbalest, a gleaming white M-9 looking Arm Slave. The very though of an entirely different world that Sousuke kept a secret was mind boggling; all of a sudden, everything made perfect sense, Sousuke's daily disappearances, his weapon collection, the constant demand to protect Kaname, and what did Kaname have to do it?
Not one of the pictures had Kaname in a uniform; the closest thing she wore to uniform was a baseball cap with 'TTD-1' written on it. As many questions were answered, many new questions would form in place. Nothing made sense, the only way to find out was ask, but how do you tell Kaname and Sousuke their big secret was blown? Would Sousuke kill them disregarding the law?
"Hey Kyoko-san!" Shinji spoke aloud,
Kyoko turned to find Shinji darting around a corner with his laptop bag, and wearing the same uniform as yesterday. The thing regrettably was that Shinji and Kyoko were already late when they woke up; it would've been impossible for him to have gone home and cleaned himself up. Shinji looked ahead and saw that Kaname was walking next to her. Shinji suddenly stopped running and started to walk like a normal student, who didn't have a shower or changed clothes.
"Morning Kazama-kun…what happened to you?" Kaname spoke, "Why you all messed up?"
"I fell over this morning" Shinji replied, immediately covering Kyoko with a story. It was highly unlikely that nobody in the school would leave it alone if rumor that Kyoko and Shinji had spent the night in the same apartment and Kaname would probably not stop bugging Kyoko with shame.
"So what did you two get up to last night?"
"Nothing…just a quiet night at home" Kyoko spoke,
"Same…just a quiet night reading magazines" Shinji replied,
"Hmmm" Kaname spoke, turning her attention forward to her homeroom class. It sounded a little odd for Kyoko to be so reserved about herself and Shinji just felt out of place with his scruffy appearance. Before anyone could complain, Kaname opened to the door to a strange sight.
"Sousuke!"
Because of the narrow timing of this arrival to Tokyo, he had been just dropped off on top of the building no less then ten minutes ago; as a direct result, Sousuke was still changing his SRT uniform for his regular school uniform. He was decent, but not to the standards that Kaname accepted.
"Sousuke!" Kaname waited outside slightly flustered to see Sousuke's body "If your going to Change, at least break into the men's locker room to do it!"
No less then thirty seconds later, Sousuke took to get his shirt and black uniform top jacket on.
"Ok, I'm ready"
"Good" Kaname stormed into the classroom and whacked Sousuke with her bag.
Kyoko and Shinji looked on as Kaname inflicted her normal routine of abuse onto Sousuke. But why was he back? Usually Sousuke's sortie missions took days to complete at Kyoko now knew the real reason we went missing. Unless it was just something he had to do at Merdia Island; Sousuke would have to take no less then three days to get back.
Before the argument continued, Mizuki had entered the classroom. After quickly taking a look over everyone, especially Kaname and Sousuke, Mizuki approached Kyoko in the corner of the classroom.
"Hey, I got your text message already, and why is it so cryptic?" Mizuki spoke,
Kyoko immediately silenced Mizuki and gave her a piece of paper,
We found out what Sousuke really does on all those days he's not here! Meet with me and Shinji after class, its important!
Mizuki always had something against Sousuke; either for being embarrassment or other reasons. Finding out something about Sousuke to exploit and use sounded like something to good to be true. But for the meantime, it was just best to wait and see, not knowning of what kind of surprise.
Location: TDD-1 Tuatha de Daanan, Somewhere in the pacific
Time: 14:30 hrs (+10 hrs GMT)
Date: March 11th, 2006
On the surface; it looked like a black whale was slowly starting to come awfully close the shore of the small half-moon shaped island. But underneath the surface the sheer majesty and beauty of the submarine gave many who knew of it the chills. The Tuatha de Daanan was considered to be MITHRIL's greatest investment, next to the ARX-7. But despite all the kicked out technology and advancements that the ship had, it in reality was her captain that made the difference.
It was in her blood; her father was a submarine commander and even knew Richard 'The Duke' Mardukas personally. It wasn't until the pacific Christmas incident did Theresa know this personal secret that Commander Mardukas had about her father. Theresa didn't ask him to have confirmed the story, but it didn't seem to have mattered. In any regard, she was continuing a very proud tradition.
"TDD-1, this is Merdia Island control, please comply" Spoke a male voice over the radio speakers.
"Medria Island control, this is TDD-1, Captain Testarossa commanding" Theresa spoke in a clear voice from her chair "Requesting permission to dock"
"TDD-1, Permission to dock granted" the voice replied "Please proceed to Dock 2"
Commander Mardukas and Theresa both looked at each other, they had never been ordered to go to docking bay 2 before, and adding the fact that Tuatha de Daanan was the only ship stationed in the West Pacific Fleet made everything more suspicious.
"Merdia Island control, this is Commander Mardukas, Executive officer of the TDD-1, request to know what is in Docking bay 1"
"The TDD-2 has arrived to have her reactor fitted here"
Theresa slumped back into her chair, thinking slightly annoyed. It was odd; she had been at sea for six weeks and hadn't heard a word about the TDD-2 being finished or having her reactor fitted. Was this her punishment for not telling admiralty about her intentions with the Pacific Christmas? It had to be more to that, admiral Borha would've told her.
"Very well, TDD-1 proceeding to docking bay 2" Theresa replied finally "Helm, reset automatic computer approach for docking bay 2"
"Aye Captain"
The helm officer started to type away on a small keypad on the left side of the wheel. Because of nature of the docking procedure, Theresa felt it best that the computer system on the Tuatha de Daanan was better adapted to interfacing with difficult task of docking at Merdia Island.
"Computer reset for docking bay 2"
"Thank you helm, on my mark automate" Theresa looked at the forward screen projecting a countdown timer and a map of their approach.
Merdia Island boasted two very large underground docking bays; both were side by side and had a 30 meter high retractable door to separate them. When MITHRIL first established Merdia Island, their heavy belief in using submarines as their main naval force pushed the designers to build the base to house what were to 'enough space to house 4 Russian Typhoon class Submarines'; the result was two bays that could do easily accommodate a Tuatha de Daanan Class Submarine each.
Geography speaking; the Actual docking bays were at the centre of the island; to take advantage of the hilly terrain on the island to disguise height of several sections of the base.. But the thought of a channel being dug out to allow a submarine access to the bays force Theresa personally force them to do something else. The result was an underwater tunnel, just large enough to fit the height and width of the Tuatha de Daanan.
"Mark helm" Theresa spoke,
At the moment she said that, the helm pushed a button and the computer was at the helm. The lights on the bridge went from medium to light blue; an informal way of saying the computer had the helm.
"Y intercept ahead of us in 1.8km Captain"
"Thank you helm" Theresa spoke,
Slowly the black whale that was MITHRIL's pride and joy slowly lumbered into the tunnel towards dock. Because of the short distance between land and the ship's hull, a low roar could be heard slightly more then usual. It was kind of eerie considering the noise sense of what they were doing.
"Science station; what is the status of our cargo?" Theresa asked,
"Cargo is holding, nothing to report"
"Understood" Theresa replied quietly,
The submarine continued onwards until it came to a point where it would be under the island; ahead was a Y junction, each channel leading to a docking bay. The Tuatha de Daanan's noted this and started making the proper procedure for going into the second docking bay. Behind the black whale, a massive titanium door started to lower itself over the tunnel; the apparent line of defense from a torpedo attack in case the base was under attack. Once the door had shut, the radio system spoke again
"Merdia Island Control to TDD-1 Tuatha de Daanan; Welcome home"
"Tuatha de Daanan Confirm" Theresa spoke before standing up with a ship microphone "All hands, this is the captain. Tuatha de Daanan is now in docks, all tactical stations disable weapons, Engineering teams and all available crew report to Hanger deck immediately"
"Commander Mardukas, please report to the catapult deck when it has been opened up" Theresa continued to ring out commands,
"Yes Captain"
"Captain, I have an radio message on a the command frequency, its Admiral Borha" the commutations officer spoke, " he wants to talk to you, the very moment you get off the Tuatha de Daanan"
"Where is he calling from?"
"Your office"
Everything was getting weird and weirder, first the transfer of the TDD-2 Pillar of Autumn to her base and now the admiral in charge of operations was here; was their something that she wasn't being told? It certainly wasn't going to be a surprise party she knew that, and it was very rare for Admiral Borha to be outside headquarters. Theresa's main concern was to investigate her cargo and find out the read reason behind the two reactor plants.
Unfortunately, if sounded like that wasn't going to happen; Theresa didn't realize how right she was. Location: Tokyo Jindai Municipal High School, Tokyo
Time: 12:33 hrs (+8 hrs GMT)
Date: March 11th, 2006
Class had ended early for the day as was normal for a Saturday lesson and only covered for a few hours. Sousuke had gone off to report to the principle about some certain issues about changing in the classroom while Kaname did her daily stint of hall monitor duty, despite this not being part of her regular duties as the student body council vice president.
In the back of the classroom, three students were huddling around a single computer on a desk. It hadn't been turned on yet, they were still considering going back to someone else's place. But Kyoko and Shinji quite sure about what Mizuki would say if she'd found out about their overnight sleepover.
"So Kyoko-san, what is this about?"
"Shinji and I did a little investigating since yesterday about that thing with Sousuke, and together we found some shocking information, we figured we should tell you"
Shinji turned on his laptop and loaded his windows program, the speed of his computer was unexpectedly slow, because of the lack of battery power left after the overnight stay a Kyoko's house.
"Hang on" Mizuki looked up at Kyoko for a minute "You said that you and Shinji were up all night researching this together?"
"Yes, why?"
Kyoko became increasingly worried about what Mizuki was implying; Shinji not even noticing was more concerned about the amount of power left in his laptop.
"Did you go as low as to sleep with Shinji-kun?"
"WHAT!" Both Shinji and Kyoko yelled, Shinji falling from his chair.
"I guess not" Mizuki replied "Then what did you to do? You can't have worked alone at the same time"
"No, I just slept on the couch…" Shinji replied,
"Shinji-kun!" Kyoko spoke aloud,
"Come on Kyoko-san, if we didn't, we wouldn't have found out about this secret" Shinji defended himself. Mizuki was taken back by the honesty of Shinji. Usually at this point Shinji would've been a coward and tried to deny it. Instead, it sounded like whatever this thing what she was going to see was, made him total re-energize his mind.
"Ok, so what is it that you dragged me out here to see?"
"Ok, I've loaded it now"
"Just Let me…Oh my…" Mizuki's tone suddenly faded as the now famous image of all of Sousuke's friends in his 'other' life was seen on screen.
Just as they were started to view the pictures, Kaname and Sousuke both had entered the class when Mizuki asked the controversial question. Only Kyoko realized too late that Kaname was looking on from a short distance, still enough to recognize the kakis uniform that Theresa famously wore, the secret was out now; but it seemed that it was Sousuke was the last person to realize that he was looking at himself in his arm slave pilot armor, on Shinji's laptop screen.
"What the hell!" Kaname yelled, surprising Mizuki and Shinji,
Shinji immediately shut off the screen my slamming shut his laptop, possibly breaking the screen. Sousuke was i pushed to action by aiming his gun at the trio in front of him.
"What is going here!" Kaname continued to yell,
"We should be asking you!" Kyoko returned,
For what felt like five minutes, everyone stood in silence, Shinji hugging his laptop, Mizuki stood stiff while Sousuke held a loaded pistol at her. And Kaname and Kyoko were locked into a stare that broke all psychical limits. Kaname though in her mind about yesterday; Kyoko betrayed her by following her in the chemist and Shinji and Mizuki were helping her, if they went public, Sousuke's organization would be finished.
Kyoko now felt that the whole investigation was to dangerous, she knew that Sousuke kept live and rubber ammunition for all his weapons, and now knowing it wasn't a fake weapon, it was in fact a real 9mm pistol aimed at Mizuki; one stupid move and Sousuke could kill her.
"Sousuke…" Kaname spoke, interrupting the silence and jumping everyone's nerves "…lower the weapon"
Sousuke did as he was told and aimed it at the ground near his feet. With a huge sigh of breath, the first part of the confrontation was over. But it didn't mean they could breathe easily for now; Sousuke obliviously was not Kaname's Subordinate according to the photographs, he could easily do what he felt was best and kill all of them.
"Kyoko…why?" Kaname looked at her friend,
Kyoko was scared still; everyone in school knew that Sousuke and Kaname were both the most psychically fit pair in the school, and the only two that could keep up with each other's energy. In a fighting situation, it was two fighter's versus two nerds and a drama queen.
"We got curious…but we never thought that it would come to this…honestly…" Shinji got up from his desk and stepped closer to Kyoko,
Strangely Kaname was taken aback by Shinji speaking; usually he would've started to cry at this point. He was either being really brave, or insanely stupid, Mizuki felt like now was good time to faint, but somehow her body said no.
"Curiosity?" Kaname spoke in a lighter and less tense tone "Since when?"
"Since the plane hijacking" Kyoko replied with enriched strength from Shinji standing up to Kaname,
"Ok…I figure its time you knew, no point hiding it now" Kaname spoke, breathing out and sighing "he is really here to protect me from terrorists, originally he was meant to have left after the plane hijacking incident; but he stayed on…"
Kaname looked over to Sousuke who had a serious look on his face, while he wasn't pointing his gun; he still had the impression of killing at the drop of a pencil. Kaname though in her mind why not tell them now; it wouldn't hurt these three being in the conspiracy she hoped, Sousuke would make sure Shinji was in line, and further made sure no one else got curious.
"Sousuke, there is no point hiding it from them, they know now" Kaname spoke with a slight flare of anger "put on the safety lock and tell them who you really are"
"MITHRIL Sergeant Sousuke Sagara; Call sign URUZ 7, Identification B-3128, stationed with the Special Response Team in the West Pacific Feet battle group" Sousuke answered in a monotone voice, which in a way annoyed Kaname.
"Ok…" Kyoko spoke, remembering that this was his serious tone and that Sousuke obliviously wasn't joking.
"Sousuke, is it true…that you pilot an Arm slave?"
"Yes, however I'm not allowed to discuss which kind"
"Would be this one here, the ARX-7?" Shinji opened his laptop and clicked onto the image where a white ARX-7 was clearly visible, behind Theresa, Kaname and Sousuke in the picture. Sousuke couldn't deny it now"
"…it's a prototype version M-9 with some additional features, it's my arm slave" Sousuke lied silently, they didn't need to know anymore then they did.
"Sousuke…forget it, they called it the ARX-7 once already" Kaname sighed, "Listen, everyone, given what Sousuke just said, you need to promise me you wont tell a soul, if this went public, all of us would be in trouble"
"Okay, ill shut up" Mizuki spoke first,
"I'll be quiet about it" Kyoko spoke,
Everyone looked at Shinji whom was the most likely to spill a secret.
"Consider this myth…a myth" Shinji closed his laptop.
"Ok, now who's up for lunch?" Kaname changed her tone suddenly, "I've got a long story to tell you and I'm not going to do it sitting around here"
A/N: wow that what hard, don't be surprised if I recall this chapter. The reason I took some time on this was trying to find a way to break it to them, without Sousuke doing anything.
In other news; thank you everyone who has read this so far, officially speaking this story has now more hits then my other Story Sakura's Last chance in time (which does involve FMP too, or the MITHRIL side at least). For now I have to consider the option of abandoning the large story (the hits I'm getting isn't helping me consider keeping it active), also consider launching the other optioned story which is based off Negima, weather I do to not will be considered over the next few weeks.