湊君の名にかけて。
Of all the mysteries in this document, here was the biggest one. Tomas Weissbrucken knew what it said, sure, but he had no idea what it meant. He was a member of one of Germany's highest intelligence agency, the BND, tasked with making sure international businesses weren't doing anything to threaten his country's security. At the moment he was hacking into the computer of a Japanese corporate executive who had been rumored to be involved in some extremely shady business. After reading this file, there was no question about that. However, what kind of shady business was still anyone's guess. This person seemed to have some kind of group of enforcers willing to listen to their every command, and nothing says 'shady business' like the word 'shadow' showing up in about every sentence. Still, nothing came up explicitly stating their motives, except possibly this. Could it be some kind of cult? Was this person their boss, or some kind of obscure god? The former was more likely, but no one speaks of their boss with such familiarity, right? Whatever it was, this person acted 'In the name of Minato-kun.'
IN HIS NAME
PROLOGUE: Weißbrücken
2016 April 1(Fr)
Early Morning
Berlin, Germany
Weißbrücken
Spring had come to Berlin in all its beauty, augmented by the little celebrations all around to mark the BND's 60th anniversary. Tomas hurried past them to his office, it had been four days since he had submitted his report and he was going to get his next assignment today. Tomas was only 22, yet had already acquired such a desirable job which paid well, plus – he got to make a difference! However unrecognized he was, he liked to think of himself as the world's defender of honest business practices. Of course, the reality was by no means pretty – spying on civilians and all that, but he had come to realize all intelligence agencies did at least some of that. In all seriousness, there were people who were doing shady things that could harm his country and he was on the front line of defense against that, not that he was only concerned about Germany's well-being; all citizens of the world could be protected if he worked hard enough!
His thought came to a stop as he saw his boss standing in front of his cubicle, waiting for him. His boss' eyes immediately locked onto his as he spoke. "Weissbrucken, I need to talk to you, come with me." Tomas' boss, Wilhelm Schumacher, was a large man at 197 centimeters and with about twice the muscles as Tomas, who was barely 170. Oddly, Schumacher didn't seem angry at all, he seemed… eager, as shown by the fact that he didn't even wait until he got to his office before speaking up. "You see, I've read your report, and I, along with a lot of my colleagues, believe that this warrants not just more investigation, but an actual on-the-ground team."
Tomas was shocked, he hadn't heard of any actual missions being sent out in his entire time at the agency and had long since resigned to the fact that spies aren't what they show on TV at all. "On the ground?! Who are you sending?" he nearly shouted his inquiry for all on the floor to hear – thankfully everyone on the floor has a clearance.
His boss gave a hearty laugh before stopping in front of his office and turning to Tomas. "Why, you of course! You're the one who started the investigation, so you might as well see it through. Plus, you already speak the language! Why wouldn't I send you?" He laughed again before a more serious expression found its way onto his face. "Of course, I couldn't expect even you to do this on your own, so I'm sending you with a partner." Tomas opened his mouth to speak but Schumacher kept talking. "Now I know what you're going to ask, and my answer is – " he gestured into his office, " – her."
Tomas' mouth dropped instantly, he had expected his partner to be someone about twice his age, someone who could show him the ropes, but the person he saw sitting in the office was certainly not that. What he saw was – a kid. A girl with blonde hair like Tomas' that looked like she wasn't yet old enough to drive sat in front of the desk, impatiently looking at her phone. "You don't mean… her!?"
Schumacher gave him a quizzical look. "Why not? She may only be 16, but she is probably more qualified than anyone else we could get. She's trilingual, has extensive knowledge the area and culture, and has risen through ranks faster than anyone else in her agency has ever done!"
"Her agency? What do you-?"
At that point she got up and extended a hand towards Tomas. "Shelby Donovan, CIA." She said it in German, albeit with a very heavy accent. American. That's why. You never know what kind of things will come out of there. Tomas tentatively stuck his own hand out and shook hers, giving the same kind of introduction she gave him. He noticed now, that she was just as tall as him – like a lot of women seem to be these days. Hopefully where he's going people won't be so tall.
At this point Schumacher spoke up again. "So, now that you've been properly introduced to each other, let's talk about the specifics. Tonight you'll leave for Tokyo, and from there you'll take a train to the city of Iwatodai, where we've already rented an apartment for you." Both of the agents became visibly more uncomfortable, "- with two rooms! There will be separate rooms! Anyways, it's very close to the company's headquarters so it'll be easier to do what you have to do." He turned to Tomas, "Weissbrucken, we've got you a job at the group headquarters from which you'll do surveillance, and pay for your trip, and Donovan," he turned to the American, "this'll be a long mission, so you're going to have to enroll in the school there for the time being."
"So I'm not really going to do anything there of importance?" She asked, bitterly.
"Oh, no. You actually have quite the job to do there, according to the documents Weissbrucken dug up, that school actually is the source of a large number of the mysteries." Suddenly, he got up, handed a manila envelope to Tomas and turned away. "That's all I need to tell you, everything else is in here. Good luck with the investigation, I can only wonder what The Kirijo Group is hiding." And with that, he walked off.
Evening
Iwatodai, Japan
桐条
"Just what are you hiding?!" Meanwhile, heated words were being exchanged in the top floor meeting room of the highest building on Tatsumi Port Island. "Our companies have been making deals like these with each other for years! What changed now, Kirijo-san?" The man stood up and glared intensely at the woman seated directly across from him who didn't move an inch.
"I already told you, I am not selling stock in Ergo Research, nor will I ever be, and I am certainly not selling you that 'unused building' on the mainland no matter how much you try to give me, Nanjo-san. Regardless of any history our companies may have with each other." She kept a stoic expression, but to a trained eye such as Nanjo's it was clear she was building up heavy emotions behind that stony face.
Nanjo instinctively readjusted his glasses, "I see, in that case I will not press the issue any further. It's a shame I won't be able to extend my business here. This is quite the beautiful city you've got here." He walked over towards the door. "I know what it's like to not be able to let go of a memory, but sometimes, however painful or wonderful, you must." With that, he let the door shut behind him, leaving the young Kirijo alone in the conference room.
"What did he mean by-" she shook her head, "no matter, I've got work I need to get back to." Without bothering to go back to her office, she got out a file she had been looking at and reexamined it.
Author's Notes:
So I've decided to write a new story, I hope everyone likes it! This time I believe I have a more concrete view of where I want this story to go (not really), and I can confidently say this will be better than anything else I've written. I would love you guys' feedback on this, things like that really help when you're trying to write something. So please send me a review, even if it's only to tell me I have no idea how the BND works in reality or some such thing!
On that note, a small disclaimer, this is a fictional story which is not meant to be any accurate representation of anything... so yeah.
Another point I'd like to clarify, I like to see Port Island as being only a district of the larger city of Iwatodai, so don't get confused when I use the terms like that.
See you later!
