It was a quiet evening at the café, the owner himself would be quietly working in the back as it'd be a slow day that day. He hummed to himself quietly while he placed down the kettle onto the burner, heating up the tea he'd prepare for himself. Meanwhile Goto, who'd be near the corner of the café, would look up from his newspaper. A small commotion could be heard approaching outside before five customers would spill into the café, the bell ringing continuously as a group of adolescents made their way inside.

"What's up Uncle Hiromi! I've got company this time!" Akio said, being the first one inside.

Hiromi's head perked up, and he looked behind him. "Oh! Uh—Welcome! Good evening to all of you!"

"This place smells so nice..." Sakamoto said, looking around.

Akio would push a couple of the tables together "Uncle Hiromi I hope you don't mind if I.."

"Do what you must!" He responded.

Afterwards Akio had five chairs surround the bigger table he put together. "Come on everyone, we can sit down here!"

"He-llo Mr. Yamazaki! Do you remember me?" Satomi asked as she took a seat.

"Ah, you're Mr. Shinshi's daughter aren't you? Satomi? It's a pleasure to see you again."

"It's a big pleasure to see you too! I hope you've been doing well, how's everything been?!" She had a very cheery tone, one she saved for those who aren't any of the boys in her group.

"We've been getting more customers recently actually, thank you for asking!"

"Thanks to my input." Goto added, "And to be honest, I prefer the atmosphere of this place when it's empty."

She put her hands together, giving Hiromi a smile. "While I'd love to chat I believe me and my pupils here have some catching up to do!"

"No problem, you're all welcome to study here at any time! I appreciate your company." He bowed.

Mochizuki would then clear his throat, "Okay, so now that we're all here let's get started. First off, did anyone get into contact with the teachers on what we missed?"

Silence.

"No one?"

"I guess we kinda all forgot..." said Akio.

Satomi stood up from her seat, "Then what was the point of us coming here then?"

"We can enjoy a nice meal!" Sakamoto answered cheerfully.

"We're not here to EAT, focus on what's important right now!" Satomi said back in the tone they're normally used to.

"So what now?" Mochizuki asked.

"It's not over yet, if you don't mind waiting a bit, we could call someone from our class to drop by and help us out. Does anyone know anyone from homeroom?" Taira said.

"I might know someone." Sakamoto tried to get Hiromi's attention, "Hey Mr. Yamazaki! You have a phone we could use?"

"We have one right here actually." He pushed a landline phone on the counter towards them, and Sakamoto got up to dial up one of their classmates.

"Who are you calling?" Satomi asked.

"Just someone I know—Oh, Hi! Are you busy? ...Alright, can you come over to this place we're at? We need to study since we missed our classes. ...Okay! I'll tell you the address...!"

While everyone would be waiting for their classmates to arrive, there'd be small talk while they'd enjoy cheesecake courtesy of Hiromi. As they were finishing up their food, the person they all were expecting would arrive through the door, ringing the bell as it opened.

"Never fear everyone! For Toru Yamamoto is here!" He said, striking a pose.

"I already have a bad feeling about this guy." Satomi said, biting the piece of cake off her fork.

"Hey! Wait a second... Don't tell me you guys had cheesecake without me!" Yamamoto said as he ran up to the table.

"Go ahead! grab a seat!" Taira said.

Yamamoto pulled another seat from a table and moved it towards the main one, sitting down and kicking up his feet on top of it. "So how may I assist my pupils in this grand time of need?"

"Um, excuse me but..." Hiromi got Yamamoto's attention. "Can you take your feet off the table please?"

"Er—right." He removed his feet from the table, crossing his legs instead while interlocking his fingers. "So, you require my assistance?"

"Yeah, just help us catch up is all." Akio responded.

"That shouldn't be too hard, don't worry; Toru Yamamoto always makes sure to take notes!" He reached inside his bag, whipping out several notebooks that correspond to each subject. "No longer shall all of you be burdened by your absence, I won't let my fellow pupils fall behind!"

Akio leaned in towards Sakamoto, "Sakamoto, who is this guy?"

"He's my friend!" He responded.

"We'll take what we can get." Satomi interjected, "Come on, let's see those notebooks!" She took one from Yamamoto, flipping through the pages to find the notes that matched with today's date. "...There are notes in here but... It's all covered in drawings!" She held the notebook open for the others to see notes surrounded by crude artwork of heroes from an action TV show.

"Isn't that guy from Ninninger?" Akio asked, pointing towards the notebook.

"AHA! Glad to see there's another cultured individual in our class!" Yamamoto exclaimed.

Satomi groaned, "That's not the point here... Okay listen—just help us make sense of this, capiche?"

He held his hand out, placing his other hand on his heart. "At your service, my dearest Satomi!"

"Don't make me..." Satomi clenched her first, "Hoooh..." She sighed, opening up her notebook, and with gritted teeth saying. "Go ahead."

Everyone else would get their notebooks ready to write down the note for the day. Yamamoto would go on to read aloud the notes for history class in an odd manner, "The VERY first Tokugawa shogun was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was raised in an era of violence and destruction! During the Warring States period, the imperial court and the military government had become but a shadow of it's former self! Nearly 200 warlords had been graced by awesome political power. The daimyō controlled their own territories. These territories were called... The domains... By the end of the period, some daimyō had become extremely powerful, each commanded large swaths of territory and tens of thousands of powerful warriors."

"I don't think there's a normal bone in this guy's body..." Akio whispered to Taira.

"It's best to take what we could get.." Taira responded sheepishly.

"That kid might have a future in commentating." Goto remarked.


"I'm glad I could be of service to all of my pupils, though I won't ask for compensation... Helping those around me is just my duty." Yamamoto clenched his fist, holding it to his heart. "Although I wouldn't mind if you guys got me cheesecake too next time."

"Yeah yeah we'll... Consider it next time, thanks." Satomi replied.

"I'll get going now before it gets dark, take care everyone!" Akio waved to his friends before leaving down the street, walking back home after a long day of working and studying. He opened the front door and kicked off his shoes, "Mom! I'm home!" He said.

"Welcome home Akio!" Noa responded while she was doing laundry. "How was school?"

"They made us clean up all the paint that hit the school, so we ended up missing a lot of our classes. Don't worry though, I studied with the others at Uncle Hiromi's café."

She placed down the basket, walking over to Akio. "That's what I like to hear! You're a young man who's still capable of staying on top of things even when he makes mistakes."

"Well, it wasn't my idea..." He responded, placing down his backpack.

She placed her hands on his shoulders, "You still could've just come straight back home and not studied at all, but you caught up anyways right? That's all that matters. Your father would be happy to hear you being responsible too!"

Akio smiled softly, "Thanks Mom.."

"Since you're here, why not help me out with the laundry?"

"Alright, am I gonna have to clean Dad's dirty underwear?"

"No, I already got to that!"

The evening quickly passed by, the sun fully descending past the skyline of Tokyo, putting the moon in full bloom. While the night was still young, Asuma would return from work to finally kick back and relax at home. He kicked off his shoes as he came through the door, announcing his arrival. "I'm home!"

"Welcome home, Asuma!" Noa said, greeting him in the living room. "How was work today?"

"It was all boring, stuff you wouldn't find interesting. You?"

"The cadets are catching on a lot quicker, I think we're nearing the end of this group's course."

"Maybe soon afterwards you and I could score some time off so we could go out?"

"Ah, that sounds good.."

"Also, Hey! Akio! Come down here! Your old man wants to speak with you!" A couple seconds passed before the sound of footsteps could be heard on the ceiling that'd eventually descend down the stairs.

"Hey Dad, you need something?" Akio asked.

"Course I need something, to see what you've been up to!" He rubbed his hand through his son's hair, "How's your day been huh? Make any new friends?"

Akio quickly fixed his hair, "Nothing special, we were just cleaning all day. I guess I forgot to mention this to Mom but, Mr. Hayashi is having us put the arm back on the Anchor."

"Really now, he's got you in there like mechanics I bet."

"Kinda, we got to tighten some stuff in, but he never let us do any of the things he said were 'too dangerous' for us. So we ended up having him do some of the work while telling him how we'd go about it and stuff."

"That kind of stuff builds character, it's probably the best for your development. If you need any pointers on anything in that class though, don't be afraid to ask me. Got it?"

"Heh, yeah Dad alright."

"Good, now how's about we get started on dinner? I've been waiting all day to eat."

"Hmph, you want me to prepare dinner tonight too right?" Noa said sarcastically.

Asuma patted Akio on the back, "Come on, us Shinohara men have to eat! And no one does it better than you of course!"

Noa rolled her eyes, "Alright then Mr. Shinohara, you can be my sous chef for tonight!" She said, taking Asuma's arm and dragging him to the kitchen. Akio ascended back up the steps and into his room, going back to browsing the web on his personal computer. He'd have his walkie talkie at his side to talk with Taira while he was online, both in the middle of an internet deep dive.

"Sorry about that, I'm back now. Both of my parents are downstairs making dinner." Akio said.

"Okay, I can say I probably found something that might interest us. There's this forum that I think has information regarding that super secret military labor, it's all in English though and you need to make an account to access it."

"You think it's blocked in Japan?"

"It took a while, but I managed to get an account to access the website all thanks to a minor breach in security. I'll send over the login information to you, just make sure you're using the VPN."

Akio entered all the correct information into the account, now able to fully access the website. "I'm in now, this what you were talking about?"

"Yeah, these images are old, over a decade old at that."

"Dang, they can be older than the both of us."

"If the translation is accurate, the labor in the third photo is most likely an experimental military labor by the United States. We only have these photos because they come from police reports."

"Says here these come from that big incident at the manufacturing plant years ago... My parents were there weren't they?"

"Your Dad owns it doesn't he?"

"That and my Mom was there too, it was Section Two and the Special Assault Team that were there. That's most likely where those photos came from after the whole incident. In that case, I can probably find a firsthand account of it in action. We could be some of the only people in the world who know about it's existence."

"Are you going to ask your Mom or...?"

"...I don't know, she'd probably get suspicious if I were to tell her what we're doing. Then again, it isn't like we're doing anything bad right?"

"I'm mainly doing it because I'm just curious."

"Same here, and we can't tell anyone what we find either. Think we'll get arrested for looking at this stuff?"

"Hah, I doubt it. Unless we were leaking anything, I don't think anyone would care too much about what two middle schoolers are doing."

"I got an idea, though I'm not sure if I should do it..."

"What do you mean?"

"I can probably look through Mom and Dad's room to see if they've personally written anything down about it. I'm not sure if I should after we did just get in trouble for doing that before."

"...You don't have to, after all, we have just found proof of this thing's existence."

"But imagine the details of how it works just sitting somewhere in my home..."

"Also that incident was over ten years ago, you sure you'd find something ten years later?"

"Only one way to find out." Akio left his room quietly with the walkie talkie in hand, sneaking into his parent's bedroom while they were still preparing dinner. He looked around for notebooks, records, anything that could hold information on the labor from all those years ago. He booted up his father's computer, but was unfortunately greeted by a password screen. He then moved on to the dresser, where he'd find a journal filled with neat handwriting. "I think I found something." He whispered.

"What is it?"

"I think it's Mom's diary... I'm starting to feel bad about this... But..." He began to read the first page he flipped too. "I finally managed to find my footing in the life given to me. After my resignation from Section Two I found myself searching for another purpose in life. While I love being a wife and mother, that wasn't all I wanted to be. So when that man from the police department came by to offer me the instructor position, I felt as if the universe was giving me that chance I was looking for. What started with just Midori outside of the station house, grew into a large camp filled with young energetic pilots looking to attain the same wisdom and courage that we had around their age."

"That's pretty profound." Taira responded.

Akio flipped to another page, "Raising a son presents lots of challenges to overcome, especially when he inherits a lot of traits from his father. Not that that's a bad thing of course, however, I often find myself going at great lengths to keep him out of trouble. Akio tends to be a very curious and impulsive child, doing things to bring closure to his curious mind without thinking of the consequences that'd befall him afterwards. While it's not that big of an issue right now, there's a small inkling in the back of my mind that if I don't do my best to work with him now, it can seriously hurt him in the future."

"You must've been a really bad kid huh?"

"Next page." Akio flipped to another page. "At times like this I can't help but think about how much I love Asuma and the things he does for me. You can tell when his kind words come from the heart, and every hug and kiss shows his genuine care and affection for me. When it comes to intimacy it doesn't stop there, I especially can't get enough of it when he- uh—Next page."

"What?"

"Next page."

"What did it say?"

"Next page." Akio cleared his throat, "It's been a week after the raid, though I still find myself getting chills from the operation. I think overall Ohta and I were the most capable of handling ourselves. I was more worried about the newer members of Division Three having to be there, it surely had to have shaken them up more than it did for me. Either way, I still wonder what it was like for Midori to have to face whatever that labor was. I've only fought against a labor that could hover once, and I was half certain I could've died. At least it didn't seem to have any weapons on it, most of machine one's damage seemed to be from blunt attacks. I'm just glad Midori is able to walk home safely."

"Did she say hover?"

"Yeah, I think so. But that just makes me think... Since when did the US Military figure out how to make something like that?"

"Beats me, oh well, at least we know a little bit more about it."

"Akio! Dinner's ready! Come down and eat!" Noa exclaimed from downstairs.

"Gotta go for now, talk to ya later Taira!" Akio said, putting the diary back and leaving the bedroom.


All the students would be in the workshop finishing up their work on the Anchor's arm, Mochizuki giving the response times another test before they finalize the reattachment. "Okay, we're going to put the cloth back on the arm. Afterwards get the shell ready!" He said. After the labor was powered off, Sakamoto and Taira dressed the mechanical arm in it's cloth covering. They pulled it all the way up to the body of the labor, holding it in place for Mr. Hayashi to fasten the frame so it wouldn't slip off. The shoulder cover would then be put back onto the labor, leaving Akio and Satomi to put the outer shell of the Anchor onto it's arm. They took a breather after seemingly getting the arm back in working condition, all that's left was the field test.

"You kids really outdid yourselves! Looks exactly how we left it a couple days ago." Mr. Hayashi said.

"What can I say? We don't disappoint!" Akio bragged.

"Now just hold on there Shinohara, we still need to see how well it works in use!" He replied.

"Let me see, I'm sure it'll work fine." Mochizuki said, stepping up to the Anchor.

"Be my guest Mr. Mochizuki, you seem to have this whole situation under control."

Mochizuki climbed inside of the cockpit, starting up the labor and stepping out onto the field. He first raised both arms at once, everything was working perfectly fine. He then would have it walk toward the stack of lumber kept outside, grabbing a heavy load to see how well the machine handles it. He's able to pick up the lumber with both the arms, "It looks like everything is normal... Wait..." The monitor flashed a warning message, "There's stress in the right arm.."

"Yep, that's right, if you look closely you can see the right arm shaking ever so slightly. The Anchor can lift nine tons, but what you're carrying is only five."

"Aw what!? You mean we messed up!?" Akio said.

"Mr. Hayashi, did you know about this!?" Satomi asked.

"I may or may not..." He shrugged with a sly grin.

Taira's face fell to the ground, "We have to do the arm all over again..." Which would be followed by a collective groan.

Mr. Hayashi rested his hands on Akio and Satomi's shoulders, "Hey, it's not all bad! This is what a learning experience is all about!" He stood up, pointing to the workshop. "Let's hurry up and head back gang! We've still got the rest of the period to undo everything and fix our mistakes!"

"Hooray." Everyone responded unenthusiastically.