Chatting with the boss.
[ACMI: Stillness of Light]
It had surprised GV to learn that his current employer still attended school. On some level it was natural, she was still of the age where it was normal after all. She even went to Tokiwadai like her rival.
When she'd called him today, he'd gone to the normal spot she chose when she wanted to talk business, specifically she chose the place they had first properly met. The park near to the building that Yuuri Senya had been kept.
She was there around five in the afternoon. She first had him confirm there wasn't any electronic devices around that could spy on them, she could take out the human observers herself.
There wasn't anything to mention so she got down to the matter at hand.
"What exactly happened yesterday?" asked Mitsuari Ayu, his employer and the Esper known as Mental Stinger.
He went into the general outline that he'd picked up from various sources. The civil war between the dark side organizations and the various clashes between the level 5s.
"Shokuhou didn't get involved?"
"Not to my knowledge." GV noted off-handidly "I heard she was spending the day with her clique."
Mitsuari nodded, thinking "Okay... this is workable. But it does mean I need to resort to some other plans..."
"Such as?" GV prompted. One of his unofficial jobs right now appeared to be keeping Mitsuari from doing anything too silly so he should at least try to figure out what she was thinking about.
She looked up and paused, maybe thinking about if he was trustworthy. To that end-
"What are your personal thoughts on Shokuhou?"
GV raised an eyebrow. She'd asked this very question a few times before. Maybe it was just reassuring to her to hear the answer from him.
"I have no fondness for her. She all-but forced Joule into a very uncomfortable situation. I understand her reasoning but that doesn't force me to like her personally."
Mitsuari sighed and explained.
"I need manpower. After that battle royale, people are going to be less willing to work for pay. Using my power to control an entire force is impractical and I don't have the funds to hire everyone at the current rates for long enough to see my plan through."
GV nodded. He was basically all she had at the moment, plus or minus a few informants who could stand to be a little better at their jobs.
"So," Mitsuari continued "I can look into some of my other plans, there's someone who has offered to help me before and I'm going to have a talk with them later. I want you around to protect me."
GV nodded. It was a simple enough job. Stay with her, pull her out of danger if someone messes up.
With that said, they headed off. They had a bus to catch.
"So, where's our contact?" GV asked quietly as they sat at the back of the bus.
Mitsuari held out a pair of tickets "The Celestaquarium in district 22. You been there before?"
"No." GV admitted. He'd been to district 22 on a job before (Involving a battle on an ice rink) but he'd never been to their high-rise aquarium.
His employer shrugged at that, though GV did see a small smile on her face.
"Well, we're not there to see the sights anyway. We could come back another day if you wanted to admire the sea life." There was some snark in her words as she finished saying that.
As the bus stopped, GV watched as a group of young children climbed up. He'd seen them before. More over, he recognised their teacher.
[ACSR: Miss Kiyama]
"Miss Kiyama."
"GV." The teacher and one-time enemy smiled at him, glancing for a moment at Mitsuari "And who's this with you?"
"Hello." She gave a small nod, "I am Mitsuari Ayu."
Kiyama nodded back and introduced herself properly.
"I am Kiyama Harumi, I'm the teacher of all these little ones."
Her students, those child errors that were reclaiming their lives at last, all milled around the bus until she called for them to sit down. Kiyama sat in the back across from GV so she could watch her students.
"Where are all of you going?" GV asked "A field trip."
"Basically." Kiyama nodded "They've been very good in their classes and I promised them a trip to somewhere in the city if they all were good, they chose the aquarium."
"Really?" Mitsuari asked, GV could read her enough that she was just trying to make small talk "The Celestaquarium?"
"Yes. Though I thought they'd have picked one of the others." Kiyama noted "There are better collections elsewhere."
Academy city had multiple aquariums. GV was going to point out they were going too but Mitsuari noted he should be quiet about that. Instead he noticed something.
There was a small bump on the back of the necks of a few of the students.
"Umm, Kiyama, what's that?"
He noted it to her and she told him quietly.
"It's called a Strobila. Some of them needed to have one installed to help them."
"Help them with what?" GV asked.
Kiyama spoke quietly as the bus drove "Some of them still have minor lingering problems due to what happened. We couldn't risk any treatments that would affect the brain directly, not after what they'd been through."
Mitsuari became curious at that and spoke up "What do they do, the Strobila I mean?"
"They alter the balance of hormones in the blood stream to help modulate the esper. My student's primary doctor found research on them and helped modify them to make them safe for my students. Before that, they were apparently being suggested as a way to control offenders at juvenile hall and things like that."
Mitsuari seemed caught up in thinking about them as the bus arrived. GV poked her and they got off with the school group.
Kiyama was vaguely amused when she saw the two of them were getting of with them but GV didn't seem to know why. He just heard her making a comment on how Mitsuari must have invited him to this.
Regardless, they were here now. Time to go meet Mitsuari's contact.
End of chapter.
I really enjoyed this chapter. It should be noted I haven't read NT11 novel which a lot of this chapter is drawing from, I'm just trusting that the wiki is accurate. Most of my reading is currently focused on OT16 right now.
But yes, people have been calling for a GV arc and here it comes.