Mikan, Hotaru, and I huddle together behind the corner which leads to the front of the door to the staff room. Behind the corner is the door to a bathroom, which we are sitting smack dab in front of. Yuu is nowhere to be seen, hiding in a spot where he can see…but cannot be seen himself. I try to contain my evil snickers. Natsume, Ruka, and Tsubasa won't know what hit them!
Fukutan-sensei walks out the door calmly as could be. When he moves, the three of us move as well. We walk toward him, looking happy as could be. "Good morning, Fukutan-sensei!" Mikan gushes.
"Morning." Hotaru says much more quietly, but with a small smile on her face.
"Nice to meet you, Fukutan-sensei." I bow to him, for I've just met him for the first time. "My name is Sakurai Karin."
"Oh, good morning. And nice to meet you too, Karin-san." Fukutan-sensei bows back to me. "What brings you girls here?"
"Oh, nothing." Mikan says sweetly. "We just wanted to say hello to you." She pauses, trying to remember what she was supposed to say next. I elbow her. "Oh!" She remembers. "And we wanted to thank you for all you've done for our class when Narumi-sensei wasn't there!"
"Oh." Fukutan-sensei looks surprised, then starts tearing up, to my great discomfort. I don't like crying adults…I don't know why, so don't ask for a reason. "This has never happened to me before!" He gushes in his turn. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Then he stiffens up. "Please excuse me." He says, crinkling up his eyes. He walks to the bathroom.
Out of the corner of my eye, I detect a shadow flickering, and a flash of red skirt pass by. Together, Mikan and I share smirks while Hotaru presses a button on the remote that controls her camcorder. We open the staff door and step inside.
This room is also richly furnished with all the things an office should have, with red velvet curtains and lush carpeting. In a far corner of the room, sitting calmly before a crystal ball lying on a plump cushion, is a pretty blonde lady with her hair tied up in a ponytail. I scan the room some more, looking for the real Fukutan-sensei. Ah-ha! Found him! He must be that man that's fidgeting in the middle of the room!
Other than the blonde lady and Fukutan-sensei, there's no one else in the room. I quickly slip on my glasses and snap a picture of the whole room, including the lady and Fukutan-sensei. Oh! I forgot to take pictures of Mikan and Hotaru. I'll just do that now too then.
"What are you looking at?" Hotaru asks me, looking blankly back at me. I flinch slightly. Crap. She caught me.
"I'm not really looking at anything." I say as nonchalantly as possible. "I was just thinking about our plan. Do you really think he'll give us a lock that easily?"
"Sure he will!" Mikan says confidently. "Our plan is sure to succeed!"
I sigh. I really don't like this part of our plan. But if this man is as big a sissy as Hotaru and Mikan claim, then it will probably work. Taking a deep breath, I begin to think about a dead puppy.
"Fukutan-sensei…" I say, my voice breaking. Tears are rolling down my face, and I look like I'm trying not to burst out into tears. "I'm sorry to inconvenience you like this, but I'm desperate!" At the right moment, I let out a barely controlled sob, and bury my face in my hands. Part one of our plan is complete.
"Karin-san, what's wrong?" Fukutan-sensei looks concerned. I feel bad tricking such a nice man like this, but I suppose it has to be done.
"The hair of her violin bow suddenly went missing." Hotaru explains quickly. "And she's going to have a recital very soon. She can't find another bow anywhere, so she desperately needs some hair to replace the missing ones."
"So…Fukutan-sensei…since your hair can grow really fast, we figured you could help us?" Mikan asks hopefully, giving him puppy dog eyes.
"Pl-please, Fukutan-sensei!" I sob, dropping to the ground. I bow down to him and lay my forehead down onto the ground. "Please! My recital is in fifteen minutes! I don't know what my master will do to me if I don't play today!"
"Please! Please help her! If you don't, God will be angry at you for not helping a person in need!" Mikan drops down next to me, and we both sit at Fukutan-sensei's feet, groveling. For extra emphasis on Mikan's words, I make a fireball appear by Fukutan-sensei's right side, although I'm careful to extinguish it quickly before it can spread. Hotaru stays upright, holding a pair of scissors behind her back.
My tears, my fire, and our groveling seem to have an effect on Fukutan-sensei. With tears of fright and sympathy, Fukutan-sensei says loudly, "All right! I'll give you a lock of my hair. But what will we cut it with?"
"I have some scissors right here." Hotaru comes forward, ready equipped. Fukutan-sensei slips off his hair ribbon, and closes his eyes.
"Eep." I squeak as I witness what happens next. Fukutan-sensei's hair floats up, and elongates itself at an astonishing speed.
"Stop!" Hotaru calls. "That's quite long enough!" She takes a lock of his hair, and snips it off his head.
"Oh my God, thank you so much Fukutan-sensei, you're such a lifesaver." I gush, as the three of us back out the door. "I'll definitely come back here and play my violin for you, using your hair in my bow!"
Crying tears of happiness now, Fukutan-sensei waves us off, yelling, "I look forward to it, Karin-san!"
As we close the door to the staff room, Mikan unleashes a torrent of questions onto me. "Are you really going to play the violin for him, Karin-senpai? Can you even play the violin? Is it even possible to use hair other than horse hair?"
"Yeah, I can play." I giggle. Then I answer all her other questions soberly. "Of course I will play for him. A promise is a promise. And as for the horse hair question, who knows?"
"NO!" A loud cry hurts my eardrums. "YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU FREAK!" Tsubasa skids around the corner, out of the door of the girls' bathroom! He looks extremely bedraggled. He has- what, sparkles? Glitter?- in his hair, and he has the scent of roses about him. Yuu had used his Illusion Alice to pretend that the girls' bathroom was the boys' bathroom, and apparently when the boys walked into a room full of girls…chaos had begun. I so want to see it, and luckily, because of careful planning and Hotaru's camcorder, I'll be able to.
"Where are Natsume and Ruka-pyon?" Mikan asks.
"Right here." Ruka and Natsume appear behind Tsubasa, looking equally bedraggled. Natsume even has a dark red mark on his cheek that looks suspiciously like lipstick. And behind Natsume, being dragged along by the ear is…uh oh. Poor Yuu…he must've been caught by Natsume. Behind Yuu and Natsume is a rather crispy and burnt looking girl with a tube of sparkly lip gloss in her right hand and a bottle of perfume in her left. She takes a look at the boys, seems to have second thoughts, then leaves.
"Iinchou!" Mikan exclaims. She lunges toward Natsume. "Let Iinchou go!"
Natsume pulls Yuu away from her reaching hands. "You won this round." He admits, brushing off some glitter from his hair with his free hand. "But let's strike a new deal. I return this boy to you…if you agree to us working together and sharing the prize." He points to me. "You're going to let that girl go free anyway if you win, aren't you? So why don't we work together so we can both get what we want? You can have all the other items, and Ruka and I can keep this guy." Tsubasa gives us a pleading look. I feel rather sorry for him.
Staring carefully at Natsume with narrowed eyes of suspicion, Mikan backs up to consult with me and Hotaru. She never turns her back to Natsume, who's just standing there with an aloof expression. When she finally reaches us, she whispers, "Should we accept his offer?"
Hotaru thinks for a bit, and then nods her head. "I see profit in this venture. Less work for us to do if there are more people to share the burden."
"I personally have no problems with it." I say, shooting a rather guilty look at Tsubasa. "Feel free to collaborate with the guys."
Hotaru and I push Mikan forward. "Go tell them, Mikan-chan." I say encouragingly.
"Natsume!" Mikan says confidently. "We've talked it over. We've decided…we'll work together with you guys!"
"Fine." Natsume shrugs indifferently.
"Let's get going then." Ruka says with a smile. Whoa, wait a second? Ruka actually talked? Amazing!
"Let's go, Ruka-pyon!" Mikan cries happily, linking her arms through his arm and Hotaru's arm. Wow. I'm amazed once again. Do I see a hint of a blush on Ruka-pyon's face? First Natsume, now Ruka? Mikan's amazing and she doesn't even know it. I snicker inwardly.
A girl walks out of the girls' bathroom. She's a classic Asian girl, with black hair and dark eyes. She's wearing glasses, and she's taller than I am. She looks very familiar to me, almost like Agent 005 back at U.S Alice Academy…but I just can't place her, partially because I'm not wearing my glasses. Her face is rather blurred. She seems to take one piercing look at me through her glasses, and then hurries away quickly.
"Karin! Karin! PST!" Ooh! I hear my name! Where's it coming from? Mitsuki and Hana are walking down the hallway that me and the others are standing in.
"Excuse me. We need to borrow Karin for a couple of minutes." Hana says with a gentle, polite smile.
Shooting a questioning look at Mitsuki and Hana, I say to the kids, "I'll be right back."
"Hurry back, Karin-senpai!" Mikan calls, waving at me.
I follow Mitsuki and Hana out of the building and onto the school's large grassy grounds. "Where are we going, you guys?"
"The air has ears." Mitsuki answers shortly. I scowl at this statement. We continue walking down a nice path until we reach a cherry blossom tree. It's not spring yet, so no blossoms are in bloom…yet.
We stop at the roots of the tree. "Mitsuki, call him out." Hana instructs. "He seems to like you the best."
Mitsuki nods. "Mr. Turtle!" She calls. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
I tense up. Who the heck is Mr. Turtle? Suddenly, out of the roots of the tree, that freaky turtle or laptop, or whatever it is comes crawling out! But, I proudly stand my ground, confident that I won't get squished by the thing again.
The turtle crawls steadily to Mitsuki's side. We all crouch around it, staring at it inquisitively. "Watch this. I waited until you guys were here to try this." Mitsuki says excitedly. She bends down close to the turtle's ear and says clearly, "Mr. Turtle, please call Joel and Kay over a private line. No spies or piggy backers."
The turtle says, "One moment please." A muted dial tone emits from it. Then…
"Finally! What took you guys so long?" Joel's oh-so-comforting voice speaks out of the turtle's mouth. A crash issues forth, then Kay's voice could be heard.
"Girls! Girls! Are you all right? We've been so worried!"
"We're fine." Hana says in a soothing voice.
"The laptop got thrown out. That's why the report was so late in coming." Mitsuki says bluntly.
"But, it was smart enough to come back to us!" I intervene hastily.
Kay sighs a breath of relief. "Well at least you're all right. I'm afraid we have some bad news here." We're all immediately serious.
"What happened?" I ask urgently.
Joel comes back into hearing. "Those science geeks are trying to weasel in on our mission!"
"What science geeks?" Hana looks mystified.
"Phil and Lucia from the Technical Ability Class! Surely you haven't forgotten about them already!" I can picture Joel clearing his throat self-importantly. "They've always been jealous of us Specials."
"Oh, is that all?" Mitsuki says dryly. "That was the bad news?"
Phil and Lucia are the co-moderators of the Technical Class back at U.S Alice Academy. They are always bickering with Joel and Kay, who are the co-moderators of the Special Ability Class. The Technicals are apparently convinced that the Specials aren't serious enough, and the Specials think that if the Technicals could get any more serious than they already are, they'd be dead.
I sigh. "Is this really the time to be upset about another squabble with the Technicals and Specials?"
"Oh, it's much more serious than that, Agent 003. Phil and Lucia have already taken action."
"Don't stop there!" Mitsuki snaps. "What have they done?"
"They have already sent their agents over. Their three agents had infiltrated the Academy even before you guys arrived in Japan."
Hana, Mitsuki, and I sit around the turtle in silence, letting Joel's words sink in. Already infiltrated? How could that be?
I decide to voice one of my suspicions. "I thought I saw Agent 005 in the hallways today…"
"What?" Mitsuki and Hana exclaim.
"That was probably her." Kay's voice fills in calmly. "Phil and Lucia sent over Agents 004 and 006 as well."
Now it's my turn to be astonished. "What?" I screech. "Why would they send Agent 004 over here? Of all people! That guy's the laziest ass I ever saw!"
"I know he's lazy." Kay snaps. "But he has a higher IQ than you guys! And…he is pretty strong…"
"Darn it!" Mitsuki groans in a complaining tone, slapping the grass angrily. "This mission is already hard enough without competition! Why did Phil and Lucia even send other agents anyway?"
"Hey, you think I know?" Joel's voice contains a hint of helplessness. "We didn't even know what they did until today, when they announced it during our staff meeting!" Joel begins to rant. "And oh, did they have smirks on their faces too! Trying to prove that their Technical…ness is better than our Specialness!"
Joel's ranting voice fades away slowly, and then Kay takes the stage again. "Sorry bout that, girls." She says quietly, with the hint of a giggle. "You know how he gets…"
"Yeah." We all share a sigh.
"Well, what do we do now, Kay?" Hana asks quietly.
Kay pauses slightly before replying, "I don't know." Those dreaded words…"I suppose all we can do now is just keeping on gathering intelligence. We'll keep you posted on any new developments over here."
"So…" Kay seems to be fiddling with something. "Agent 003, want to send us the files now?" I take my glasses off and press a little button. A paper thin chip slides out from the knobs that balance the glasses on my nose.
"Um…where are the USB ports?" I give the turtle a look-over.
On the other end, Kay is rather silent. "Erm…sorry to break it to you, Agent 003, but those Technicals that made the laptop got a little too creative. The USB ports are located…erm…in the tail area."
Mitsuki's, Hana's and my gaze all shift down to the turtle's erecting tail. "No way." Mitsuki says strongly. "The nether regions?!"
I grimace. "Why me…" Scowling, I wrench the turtle's tail up. Seeming alarmed, the turtle cranes its head over to look at me, a startled expression on its turtle features.
"It's alright, Mr. Turtle." I mutter. "Just going to insert a couple of USBs." Mitsuki tries to reassure the turtle by patting its head. I gingerly insert my glasses' chip, then Mitsuki and Hana insert their own USBs in their turn. I instruct the turtle, "Mr. Turtle, download all files, video, audio, and photos. Encrypt them, and send them over a secure, firewalled, private connection."
"Processing." It says, blinking its eyes.
"Got the files." Kay informs us. "Well, until tomorrow then."
"Yes." Hana says quietly.
Kay's voice takes on a motherly tone again. "Do be careful girls."
"Of course we will!" I try to say cheerily. "Nothing can happen that we won't be prepared for!" After my statement, the turtle closes its mouth, says "Call ended", then is silent once more.
"Karin." Hana and Mitsuki look at me with smirks on their faces. "You're taking the USBs out."