Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 15
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If You Like To Gamble
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"Ooooii," the man said in a bored tone. "How long until those drinks are ready?"
"J-just one moment, sir," Takane replied, barely able to force out the 'sir' at the end. She took up the tray of drinks Mei handed her and walked over to the table, extremely conscious of the ridiculous getup they had put her in. The tight, revealing top was bad enough, but the miniskirt alone would have been enough to put her over the edge, had the safety of others not been riding on her actions. She made her way over to the table where the four yakuza members sat playing cards, barely managing to not stumble over her high heel shoes. "Here are you drinks, s-sirs."
The young leader picked up his drink and took a sip, deliberately looking her up and down over the rim of the glass. She frowned, and he grinned. The others took their drinks as well, and the leader waved her away.
"This is ridiculous," Takane grumbled to Mei when she returned to the small bar the yakuza had installed in the corner.
"It's not that bad," Mei started, but was silenced by an angry glare.
"You have no room to say that, dressed as you are," Takane said, pointing at Mei's bartender uniform's shirt and pants. "Why couldn't I have been the bartender?! This is fallout from the Mahora tournament, isn't it? It really is, isn't it? Everyone saw…" she trailed off.
"There there, onee-sama, it isn't that bad—"
"YOU DIDN'T GET STRIPPED BY SOME PERVERTED ROBOT AND HAVE YOUR PICTURES SPLASHED ALL OVER THE NET TO BE OGLED BY OTAKU AND HIKIKOMORI LOSERS! DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT MAKES ME FEEL? DO YOU KNOW HOW THIS MAIDEN'S HEART IS HURT BY SUCH THINGS?!"
Mei sweatdropped as the yakuza at the table grinned or laughed at the blonde girl's outburst.
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Finally, the yakuza got tired of baiting Takane and sent the two of them off to the room they shared with Nodoka, who was always spared such things. Ku Fei was somewhere in the building as well, though they didn't know where. After she caused all that trouble the first day, they had shot her full of tranquilizer darts and strapped her into a straight jacket and tied her legs together at the knees and ankles and then taken her away. When asked what they had done to her, the yakuza members would laugh or say something about hanging her up on a coat hook. The three girls were always left mystified.
When the guards opened the door for them, Nodoka squeaked in alarm and quickly shoved something under a blanket. The guards either didn't see or ignored her reaction, and locked the door from the outside again as Mei sat on her bed and Takane climbed the ladder up to the top bunk, muttering about justice and maiden's hearts.
"How was it, Sakura-san?" Nodoka asked after a moment, averting her eyes as Mei changed into something more comfortable than the bartender uniform.
"It was the same. Everyone calls the leader Saga, but I think I caught another one calling him Jin, though. Is that enough…?" she asked hopefully.
"Yes, thank you Sakura-san," Nodoka replied as she pulled out her artifact, the Diarium Ejus. "Saga Jin," she said as she opened the book. She read for a moment and tried to hold back a giggle.
"What is it, Miyazaki-san?" Takane asked from the bunk above Mei.
"Um, it's nothing!" She actually laughed this time.
"Miyazaki-san?" Mei asked nervously.
Nodoka motioned for her to come closer, and showed her the diary entry.
'That Takane sure is fun to tease, her expressions are great,' the first section said, followed by a badly drawn picture of Takane's head, pointy teeth and oni horns prominent. 'Maybe it should be a bunny costume next? I wonder how she would react to that?' This was followed by Takane posing in a bunny costume with a tray of drinks and an even angrier face. 'I'll have to get Nobuo to go out and buy one, he said he can judge a girl's measurements with one glance, so it should be ok. Truly, a man to be feared.' There was a space after this, as if symbolizing a moment of silence, followed by one last sentence. 'Man, this is so much better than working up in Hokkaido, I love this place.' There was one last picture of Takane's angry face, this time embellished even more.
By this point, both girls were red faced with the strain of holding back a gale of laughter while Takane just lay on her bed, facing the wall and grumbling.
Nodoka just wished Ku Fei was with them instead of wherever she was. She had tried the Diarium Ejus on her several times already but Ku Fei thought in Chinese, so Nodoka couldn't read it. She was sure there was some function in the diary to translate, but she hadn't figured out how to do so yet. All she had to work with were pictures, most of which consisted of little more than Ku Fei making faces at some man in a suit…not a lot to go by.
Well, at least the guards were nice.
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Mana approached Negi as he walked toward the dorm. "Negi-sensei, I have something to talk to you about."
"Yes, Mana-san?" Negi replied, his mind obviously on something else.
Mana showed him the note Chisame had brought with her when she arrived the day before. "This is from an old colleague," she passed it to Negi, who read through it.
"It's rather…lacking in everything, isn't it?" he asked curiously, looking again at the plain, short sentences and stark greeting.
Tatsumiya smiled. "It's written in code. Come with me," she said, leading Negi away from the dorm. As they walked the pathways around the campus, Mana explained. "I met Carter in Somalia, he was investigating torture allegations at the time. You may not realize it, but those involved in ngos are a fairly small group, and it is not uncommon to run into the same person or group of people in many different places around the world. In short, Carter owes me. And this is his chance to repay the favor I did for him, I think."
"Mana-san?"
"He sent a messenger to meet me last night at eight o'clock in a certain business in downtown Tokyo. The messenger will return every night for a week, but if I don't come at the right time, he will assume I was unable to do so and go down a different route," she said. After a moment, she continued. "This note says he has gathered specific information in regards to the missing students."
Negi's eyes widened. "I want to come with—"
"No." She explained her refusal after a moment. "If the messenger sees anyone but me, he will think it's a trick or an ambush. This is a very dangerous thing he is doing, Negi-sensei. He can't afford to take chances. However, I would like to take Kaede with me."
Negi thought for a moment. "Are you going to be all right, Mana-san?" She nodded. "Ok then, please take Kaede-san with you, but be very careful, I don't want any more of my students to be put into unnecessary danger," he said.
Mana blinked. Negi was being protective of her? How amusing. She felt the ghost of a smile cross her face. "No problem, Negi sensei. Don't worry, I will get that information."
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Kaede and Mana stepped off the train in Tokyo and glanced around. "Akihabara, is it?" Kaede asked. Mana nodded. "Very well, Mana-dono. I will meet you here at ten." Mana nodded again, and the two separated.
Mana strolled around town for the next hour and a half before finally entering an out of the way café, where she ordered a cup of tea and waited. A few minutes later, an average looking young Japanese woman sat down opposite her and accidentally dropped her purse on the table, spilling its contents. Mana helped her gather them up, carefully pocketing the specially marked flash drive that had slid straight toward her. The two of them chatted like old friends about mundane things for a time. Mana paid her bill and strolled casually through the door and out into the street.
Now, it was up to Kaede to keep anyone from interfering with her delivery of the information.
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Kaede kept to the shadows as she shadowed Mana to the café where the meeting would take place. She watched as another young woman entered and sat across from Mana, then diverted her attention to the two thugs in the alley below her. They had been there for some time, looking at the café. They were obviously up to no good, so Kaede made her way down to street level and crept up silently behind them. Two seconds later they lay on the pavement unconscious while Kaede went through their pockets. Foreigners, both of them; each had several forms of id bearing various names. She took what seemed important, stripped them of their clothing, and tied each one up in a rather embarrassing fashion before returning to the rooftops.
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Roughly half an hour later, Kaede and Mana met up at the train station. Things had gone much smoother than Mana expected, and that was a source of worry. Two people had been watching, but Kaede had taken care of them. Both were carrying written orders instructing them to spy on certain members of a private military company. When they woke up in an alley tied up and without their clothing the next day, they would report to their boss. But Mana had the information and that was all that mattered right now.
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Donner was frantic. There was a mole somewhere among his allies, and he had no idea who it could be. It wasn't Rav, that man was strictly business and would complete any job he took on regardless of outside influence. If someone offered him a bribe, he would kill them, then find a way to resurrect them so he could kill them again on general principles. Maybe that Yakuza sub-boss Saga? He was young to have such power, he could be looking for more. Or it could be Mochizuki. Then again, it could be someone in the mercenary group he had hired to do most of the dirty work. They tended to have all sorts of unexpected skills and skeletons in their closets, especially those who had been around for a while. There were perhaps a hundred battle-hardened men in the mercenary group…that could prove to be a problem if they turned on him. He quickly totaled the forces under his control. Already he had set people out to watch the various groups. He preferred to use 'watch' rather than 'spy on'…it simply sounded better. Several of them had failed to report in, and it bothered him. Perhaps he should have hired more competent people for that? No matter. They could be written off as acceptable losses.
In any case, he had roughly twenty people on hand at any one time who could be counted upon in a serious situation. Saga had at least a dozen on hand, maybe more, but could use his family name to gather a few hundred more in a day or two. Mochizuki had become leader of his clan after his father's death, so he could be quite powerful. The clan was very old and greatly respected, though small. He could gather a few hundred within a day, but others who were loyal or allied to his clan would step in as well without a doubt. Mochizuki and Saga were officially allies, though they could be played against each other under the proper circumstances. Rav…Rav was an unknown quantity. The quiet man was dangerous, and was skilled in everything he did. He recruited his men carefully, and troublemakers were summarily dealt with, sometimes ending up in a Chinese mine or a freighter heading for Singapore or Peru. Those who actually managed to make him mad, an extremely rare thing in and of itself, usually ended up dead.
For the first time, Donner began to have serious doubts about his ability to keep these people in line. The attack on the campus had been a disaster. Sure, several of the targets listed by Master Gaze had been acquired, but the sheer cost of the operation had taken almost everything he had on hand, and the cost of the lost and damaged robots would be astronomical, though he knew several methods to minimize the final tally. At least the various groups he had pulled together with his contacts didn't know the true nature of those they were guarding, or even why they were guarding them.
And then there was the issue of the inspectors from the Yukihiro Group. Someone had tipped off the Yukihiro Group on supposed 'shady dealings' by Kurogane Electronics, so he had had to fend them off for the past two days while he hid possible evidence and did all he could to misdirect them. It wasn't working very well, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the woman, Donnet McGuinness, at least, knew everything.
Yes, this was definitely a problem.