Eiichi P.I.

Vol. 1

Chapter 1: What's in a Name?

Chapter 1

What’s in a Name?

There are certain kinds of people in this world who stand out among everyone else. They can blend in and appear just like any other face in the crowd, but after hearing their voice, one can recognize there is more behind them than just a face. Others can pick and choose how to handle this, whether to befriend them or cast them aside, label them as strange and abnormal. They are not in any way superior to others. It is either because they know their true potential, or it is staring them in the face...and they don’t even realize it.

In the Saitama Prefecture, there is a high school with no notable reputation or highly substantial renown. It is not in the lowest or highest rankings of the Japanese education system, and thus is not much of a challenge for any average student to test into. Only its former students had graduated and moved on to bigger and better things. Its name is Aki Guro High.

However, some minor notable features about it were it had a cafeteria, though it was small, and served more as a food court or cafe. Most students brought their lunches as a result. And, it boasted a pretty broad campus space, and a large student body to match.

At the back of this high school, more distinctly, at the back of the building that housed the cafeteria, out on the loading bay, sat a young man that was a most peculiar student. One look, and anybody could tell there was not much that was normal about him.

He sat on a set of short steps that led up to the loading bay, which was a flat, elevated concrete surface with a tin awning, where trucks for food distribution corporations dropped off their frozen goods.

The loading bay itself, and the wide, open grass field that led up to a row of bushes and trees that lined against a brick base fence were empty. They were empty, or else this student wouldn’t be here.

The coattails of his gakuran hung unbuttoned around his thighs, which were propped on the steps, one knee raised higher than the other as a rest for his right hand, which held a lit cigarette in between the middle and index fingers. His tan undershirt hung unbuttoned and untucked as well, exposing a loose t-shirt underneath.

His hair was of a jet black, and hung in short, fanned waves with a broad lock just above his eyebrows. A pair of yellow, objective eyes, with a sharp intelligence and wolfish appeal, gazed out over the driving pad and beyond the row of gates. There was nothing in particular that he was staring at, but it was apparent, from the straight line of his skeptical mouth and slack of his narrow jawline, that there were other places he’d rather be. Not uncommon of some high school students.

A thin line of smoke drifted up and over that face. He raised a steady right hand while not breaking his distant gaze. The cherry on the cigarette hissed as he took a long drag. There was small print on the ring over the faux cork filter that read “Sparrow 100’s”. There was no breeze, and a wide stream of smoke floated out, drifting upward, as it twisted itself against the blue panel.

His name was Eiichi Kozuka, and his name had become well known during his prior freshman year at Aki Guro. However, not for good reasons.

The sun in a cloudless afternoon sky shone spears of light down upon his blank surroundings. The winter had been mild that year, and spring settled in little more than a month ago. Though Eiichi was alone, he took comfort in the silence of his surroundings. This was his spot, and had been ever since he was a first year. Not that it was his favorite spot, and if he could find a better one, he would convene there for his afternoon breaks instead. It was just a spot. Someplace away from all the noise. He was not very well liked at this particular school. It was not any fault of his own, and he himself would not suppose it was any fault on the part of his peers either, though their quick judgments and inferior reasonings could be irritating.

He spent a lot of time alone. He preferred it. People tended to cause him to react in ways he had little control over.

His phone vibrated from the inner pocket of his gakuran. Not a text, but a timer he set up as a signal it was about time to head back to class. He was not punctual like this usually, considering he skipped two of his morning classes because the subjects were simple enough for him, but Kamon-sensei’s math class could be brutal.

He took one more drag and stopped before he started sucking filter fumes. Stamping the cigarette out against a concrete step, he stood and with hands in his pockets, stepped around the wall and began following it back to where he could reenter the school premises.

It wasn’t like he was all that concerned about his grades or anything. He honestly couldn’t give a damn, he just wanted to get out of this place so he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. High school, to Eiichi, was just one big, weary chunk of time taken out of his day that could be used in much more effective ways than sitting in a classroom as one sensei after another passed through, giving boring lectures that seemed to all blend together after the first couple weeks.

A distressed voice met his ears and suddenly pulled his attention away from flitting over the back wall of the cafeteria.

“Let go of it! Give it back!”

It was a girl’s voice. He didn’t have to look far.

Some distance ahead of him were two people locked in a struggle. A female student, roughly his height with two braids of brown hair that hung down past her shoulders, and were currently flapping about in the midst of her panic, was trying to wrestle something away from a male student twice her size.

The male student had a cord or strap in his fist, which he kept yanking toward himself with a belligerent snarl on his face.

The guy’s voice bellowed back, “What’s this, ha!? What pictures were you taking with it!?”

The girl yelped, “That’s none of your business, give it back!”

Eiichi didn’t much care for the students at this school, mainly because he was different in ways they could not possibly understand on a normal level, and if they knew the truth, they’d only have reason to hate him more. Simply put, they were all just a pain in his head. But there were some things, like what was happening right now, that just made his blood boil.

He didn’t have to think about it. One foot stepped forward and he was on the move, heading toward the situation at a steady trot. As he got closer, his pace increased, until he was practically sprinting.

The girl wrestled harder, writhing her upper body, hugging close whatever she was trying to protect. Eiichi kept his eyes on the lummox. His vision tunneled on the guy’s ugly mug. His right hand retracted into a fist, and he lunged.

BAFF!

“Ah! You son of a bitch!”

The guy never saw it coming.

Less than a minute later, after some panting, and a cry that he would get back at him for this, the attacker became just a shrinking silhouette headed for the farther regions of the school.

He actually didn’t look that different from the crowd of people that others thought Eiichi might be seen around, if he actually spent time around people. Though Eiichi could not remember seeing him around campus before. It was possible, but judging by his size, it was unlikely he was a freshman. Unlike Eiichi, his uniform had actually conformed to dress code. It was that haircut that was awful.

'This isn’t 1985, guy…’

Eiichi watched, hands in his pockets again with the thumbs hooked out, panting a little himself with a welt on his left jaw where his opponent got a lucky shot. It wasn’t that troublesome a match. The attacker had been bigger than him, but he didn’t really know how to maneuver or use his weight, which told Eiichi, if he had been into anything, he either ran with a gang, or did something less active. Whatever it was, it didn’t involve much fighting.

Eiichi had been in a number of fights since his junior high years. He couldn’t say he hadn’t come to like it. After doing it enough, the adrenaline rush died down, the dopamine levels evened out, and it became just something that happened from time to time. But his emotions, and the emotions of others, were always still there, and sometimes, that made things interesting. People falsely accused him of a lot of things, because he didn’t fit in anywhere, but if there was one thing he was guilty of, it was brawling.

“Wow, thank you!”

The girl had stumbled back and fell in the grass after her attacker let go of the cord, when Eiichi delivered the first punch. She was there now, beaming up at him from a wariza position with her feet splayed out to the sides. The item she had been desperately trying to protect was seated in the lap of her skirt, her hands rested on it. A camera, one of the expensive looking ones with the hand adjustable lens.

He peered down at her. She did recognize him, but oddly enough, there wasn’t any spite, disgust or fear. She recognized him, just not in the way he was familiar with.

“No prob. You need any help?” he asked.

“No...” She looked down at the camera when he had been talking about her. “I think it’ll be alright. No scratches or cracks.”

Okay...well, that’s all he needed to hear. A spin of the heel, and he was on his way again. The rush of the situation might have caused her to temporarily forget. If he hung around, she might eventually remember who he was, and then there would be no point. At least he got a little bit of excitement out of his day.

“Hey, wait!”

Now he just had to get through his last chunk of classes and he could head home.

“Wait for me!”

What was this?

He turned around. “What.”

The girl slowed from her trot and approached him, her camera now slung under her arm.

“Well...why did you start walking away all of a sudden?”

A curious question to go with the intensely curious vibes he was getting from her, but he didn’t want to bother with this back and forth. It wasn’t like he was captain of the kendo team or anything, and he definitely didn’t have the ego for popularity, but he always felt it safer to assume everyone knew about his infamy than not.

She had an energetic voice, with high tones that stood out. A simple face, somewhat round with an excited glimmer in the pair of cobalt eyes that beamed from behind large coke bottle lenses sitting on the freckled bridge of her nose. She was likely a loud talker, and given her appearance, most of the students would recognize her without knowing her name.

Eiichi returned monotonously, “Your camera’s not broken, you’re not hurt. Are we done here?”

“Well, you can’t just save a girl and run off without giving your name or something.”

“Bye-bye.”

He already had his back turned, one hand raised in a nonchalant wave.

He heard feet clomping behind him again.

“Wait a minute! Who are you!?” She was starting to sound a little irked now.

If she recognized him, why was she asking?

“Nobody.”

“That can’t possibly be your real name.”

“Wow, ya think?”

Maybe he should make it really funny and say his name was Odysseus.

So she was super curious, and an airhead. Actually, from her patterns and behavior, he was getting a sense of practicality. He could sense her taking this snide remark and neatly tucking it away someplace in the back of her memory, as if she was already mentally recording everything she picked up from him, paying attention to his words for future use.

They had already passed around the main building as other structures of the school began to appear around them. It was a straight walk through one of Aki Guro’s three courtyards to get back into the main building.

“Come on, it’s just your name!” This came out as a sort of demanding whine.

Eiichi stopped again. “Listen, I’ve got stuff to do, so I can’t really stand around and talk right now.”

The blue eyes stared broadly at him from behind her specs. When she spoke, it looked like the only thing that moved were her lips: “Yes you can.”

This was bold.

He was a little dumbfounded, and moved his partially opened mouth to speak, eyebrows scrunched and his slightly irritated voice coming out low. “...I don’t really like people telling me what I ‘can’ do.”

Still with that straight forward stare, like she could no longer control her words, she said, “You also have plenty of time.”

‘Yeah sure, let’s just start stepping on people’s toes why don’t we…’ he thought.

“...and what makes you say that?”

Suddenly she must have realized what boundaries she just crossed and began backpedaling. How careless.

Her eyes broke their gaze and blinked away. “W-Well...b-because I’ve seen you smoking at that same spot on the side of the building ever since school started...you always leave around twelve-forty on the dot...you skip class a lot as well...”

“What!?” Now it was his turn to ask the questions. “Are you spying on me? Are you some kind of stalker?”

Her hands became a blur as she waved them frantically, “N-no, no, please, let me explain!”

While the spectacled girl panicked before him, Eiichi observed her, not focused on what was going on in front of him, but on an ethereal part of her that only he could see. He had a name for it. He called it output.

Everyone has an output. It changes regularly, and can convey one’s true intentions and thoughts. It’s connected to their dreams, their ambitions, their past, their present, and a manner of subconscious processing the individual isn’t fully aware of. Whether he wanted to or not, when Eiichi was around people, he picked it up, they just had to be close enough. Only an individual could know their own output, unless they were Eiichi, who could see, hear and feel all of them.

His eyes lingered over her face and moving hands.

‘Hm...she’s nervous, but no showings of doubt, or contempt. There is some minor attraction, but nothing at the level of a stalker. She’s telling the truth…but why didn’t she rat me out?’

Eiichi relaxed, but placed a skeptical leer on her. “Alright, explain.”

The girl sighed and placed a hand on her chest. “Oh, thank you. I’m Asako Noda of the School Photography Club, Journalism Club and Yearbook Club.”

“That’s fantastic, now to the part where you tell me why you’ve been watching me.”

All of a sudden, her face lit up with inexplicable glee. “That’s just it! I’m a photographer, so it’s my job to have a keen eye!”

“Huh...”

“Photographers must remain constantly aware of their surroundings,” she began, and suddenly her speech pattern shot off at a hundred miles an hour. “—spotting anything that would be an opportunity for a good shot!! I’ve been all over this school looking for events and people to capture at just the right moment and angle...”

Eiichi, unable to control how much of the flood of excitement he was receiving from this girl, found himself feeling oddly paralleled with her mood, and trying to keep a straight face.

His eyes widened over his straight mouth, his nostrils flared as they slowly sucked in a deep breath.

Images, lots of them, flashed through his mind’s eye – images of breathtaking scenery, people milling about the school, stray animals, buildings, sky shots, close-ups of plants and flowers, all in different arrays of edited vibrant colors, sepia tones and gray scales.

Her skyrocketing mood quickly left him feeling exhausted, but mercilessly kept him in its clutches, pumping him full of excess energy and needless enthusiasm. He contemplated making a break for it, before he exploded.

“So you see, I never meant to stalk you, I just simply noticed you.”

She had calmed down now, and Eiichi had a chance to collect himself. He exhaled the pent up air in his chest and looked upon the girl with the camera.

“So, you really like that photo stuff…” he breathed, with a hand to his chest.

“Uh-huh! To get the perfect shot, it’s...it’s...so magical...”

Pink, fuzzy shades blossomed in his mind, with an overlapping of bubbly auras, and he was suddenly feeling quite content and at peace. His surroundings faded into the haze and all was good with the world.

Eiichi shut his eyes and hummed unintentionally in his daze, “Wow~...photography must be fantastic...”

“It is...” her voice joined in.

A long pause followed.

“Are you okay?”

‘Dammit!’

Eiichi snapped back to reality, suddenly realizing he and this random girl had been dreamily staring off into nothing like a couple of la la land idiots.

He jerked an anxious hand behind his head. “Yeah-wow-um, an honest student. I haven’t met one in a while...So you’re really into that, huh?”

“Yeah! There’s nothing like it in the world!”

“I’m starting to see why that guy must have been harassing you. It makes people uneasy knowing there’s someone going around taking pictures of everything they’re doing.”

And now gloom, her head dipped down, he could feel that one hurt her. Depression would be next if he didn’t say something fast.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to put you down like that. It’s what you like to do...”

“It’s okay. I just happened to see you there, and so I sort of paid you a visit now and then...”

“That doesn’t sound creepy.”

“You’re not the reason why I was going there!” she shouted. “I visited here and there for a while because there’s a spot when the sun hits the trees just right that’s...wonderful...And well, you always happened to be there. You looked like you wanted to be left alone, so I didn’t bother you. I sort of thought of you as an indirect acquaintance, like a statue. I guess I should have thought of you more as a guardian...”

She was definitely telling the truth, he didn’t need to hear anymore to know this. Though he picked up that she had even given him a little nickname...‘Ishi-san’?

‘Is this girl for real?’

“So, what was that guy’s problem anyways?”

She turned to peek back the way they came. “I don’t know, he was standing by the back door of a building over there when he saw me, then he ran up and grabbed my camera.”

How bizarre.

“Well, people are strange. He was probably just trying to steal it,” Eiichi said.

For a minute she continued to look down the walkway, and Eiichi contemplated asking if he could leave now, but when Noda began slowly turning, with her curious hands clasping behind her skirt, it told him this was not over.

“Sooo...?” she said with a smirk.

He raised an eyebrow. “So what?”

She spoke in cheery tones, “I gave you my name. Now it’s your turn to give me yours.”

Being around this girl was like being on a roller coaster. If he stuck around her any longer, it might kill too many brain cells.

“You’re wasting your time getting to know me, photo girl.”

And with that, he turned and continued on his way as planned.

Before he broke into a run, he could feel her irritated output clawing at him from behind.

“Hey! That’s not fair! Get back here!”

***

“Well, that was distracting to say the least…”

After managing to lose her, Eiichi was inside the main building, on his way to class like a good little student drone.

Aside from the prior excitements, most days were like this for him. He went to school, sometimes he skipped the classes that meant the least to him, found ways to kill time, and then it was back home. It was about as normal as things could be...well, almost.

Before he could make it to his class door, he was greeted by a familiar mind with a propensity for furious outbursts that he had hoped to not run into at this time, given his tardy circumstances.

“You’re late again, Kozuka!” The thin, irate voice stopped him in his tracks.

He turned, and glaring at him with a set of light brown eyes that might as well have been fiery red, was the infuriated spectacle of a girl he had regular encounters with in very much this same manner.

Her name was Ryoko Takahashi. She was a nice enough girl, it seemed, at least when she wasn’t around him. She, like a majority of the student body, knew of his negative reputation and had chosen to label him accordingly. And given her authoritative role as his class representative and a hall monitor, she made it her daily practice to give Eiichi a ration of shit he could really do without. He had given up on trying to make nice with people like her a long time ago, and simply decided to play along.

Eiichi smoothed a coy hand through the air. “Wow, time really does fly.”

“Where do you go off to when it’s about time for class to start?” Ryoko returned.

A second year like him, Ryoko had a reputation of her own. Being in a position of authority, she had charisma, as well as a sense of duty and value for good people. As a result, she was a hit among many of the girls, who looked up to her in admiration. The guys, however, had come to a general decision to admire her from afar, doing anything to evade her temper. She had stellar grades, and was a star member of the Judo club. She had an athletic figure that was easy on the eyes and a head of brick red hair that was always tied in a ponytail.

Eiichi spoke with an ease in his tone, “Takahashi-san...if you really must know, I’m a deranged serial murderer and there’s a special spot on this campus where I hide the bodies of my victims.”

“Ha! You’re a delinquent, but I don’t have you pegged as a psychopath,” Ryoko sneered.

“Okay then, I’m a drug dealer that hides his stash on campus.”

“That one’s no more creative than the last one!” Ryoko flared.

“Wow, you’re a tough nut to crack.”

“Sarcasm won’t get you anywhere.”

Eiichi was satisfied to be getting his desired results, even if it was causing him some cerebral pain. It seemed to really bother Ryoko whenever he didn’t take what she said seriously. It made him wonder why she kept it up. She was a goal getter after all, and must see him as an obstacle she had not yet overcome. Maybe there was a little bit of a control freak under all that temperance.

The cerebral pain in Eiichi’s head had been quite literal, and he really was dealing with a headache, but suddenly, the dull throbbing in his forehead intensified. He placed his hand on it, beginning to feel a little dizzy. She wasn’t simply irritated with him.

‘She’s more frustrated today than usual...’

He broke away from their usual routine to ask. He might as well.

With a wince, he tried to look up at her. “...Did anything happen recently?”

“Stop trying to pry into my personal life Kozuka! You see, this is why it’s so hard to be around you. Stop that fake headache crap and get to class!”

Why did he even bother…

Sometimes Eiichi had trouble talking with people. Or really it was sometimes they had trouble talking with him. Sometimes it was hard to tell. Things could go rather smoothly, or they could go the opposite. This was why he wasn’t crazy about school. Being around a lot of people in general could be a bother for him. There was too much output.

In a tired walk that felt more like a wade, he pushed into the classroom and found his seat.

Eiichi was marked up again for being tardy. Just a few more and he would have to attend detention. Nothing new, but just a few more detentions, and the penalty would be remedial classes.

The upside was he only had twenty minutes of math class to sit through before the bell rang. Students got up from their seats and milled out into the halls before the next class would start.

Eiichi had the usual mess of emotional output to sit through during class, so he usually decided to take advantage of the classroom having fewer students in it for a period. Stepping outside was even better though, and he thought he’d get something from the vending machines, though doing this was always a gamble.

Cautiously, he made his way through the mess of black and tan Aki Guro uniforms. So far, a pretty dull day.

Suddenly, he heard a girl sobbing off to his right. Thumping pains coursed through his head and he clutched it immediately as he turned.

She was leaning against the wall, face in her hands, and surrounded by three of her friends as they attempted to comfort her. Her short pony tail danced as her shoulders lurched with every sob.

A vision flashed in his mind. He saw her standing before someone, a male student. As the student was speaking to her, her vision began to blur, and Eiichi could feel a sinking weight in his chest.

‘He broke up with her. They had been dating for nearly a year. She was in love and he decided to end it abruptly.’

He had to continue on before something bad happened.

He walked right past a boy leaning against the wall. He was much shorter than Eiichi, and looked young enough to still be in middle school. His uniform looked ruffled around the collar, and his eyes stared dejectedly at his shoes from behind a pair of spectacles.

In the next instant, Eiichi was suddenly looking out from a dark corner in a less populated part of the halls. There were three other students standing right in front of him, blocking his way, and all of them were bigger than him. One of them grabbed him by the collar and he was lifted up, just barely balancing himself on the tips of his toes. He was staring into a pair of rodent-like eyes, he could smell the guy’s rancid breath as he hissed threats into his face. He felt trapped, like he couldn’t do anything.

‘They keep picking on him. No one will help him if he doesn’t stand up for himself.’

Eiichi kept moving. He didn’t care about getting something to drink anymore. He just wanted to get somewhere where he could breathe.

He was just to the end of the hall when a sickly feeling of pompous narcissism washed over him. He looked and saw Hitomi Uoya, one of the other popular girls, known for being a gossip. She was talking with a few of her many hollow friends.

“No, I totally told him everything is fine, we didn’t do anything. He’s being such a prude.”

Another vision flashed in his mind, one of many that he wished he had never seen.

‘She’s lying. She’s been sleeping around behind his back.’

He pushed ahead, but had to be careful not to trip himself moving down the stairs, his head, shoulders and chest felt so heavy.

This was normal for Eiichi. This was why he couldn’t stand to be around people. He could tell when someone was lying before they even opened their mouth. When they were attracted to someone or hated them. When observing someone, he knew within moments what their favorite drink was, their favorite things to do, their secrets, their dreams, their ambitions, and their personality, the images were just a plus. As soon as someone focused hard enough, his mind’s eye would unwittingly pick up a short clip and play it over for him. Depending on their mood, he could suffer crippling migraines, sometimes ending with him needing medical attention. Or, he could be launched into spells of euphoria, as if he’d come under the influence of a barbiturate. This was Eiichi’s curse.

There was in fact a medical term for it, but he always refereed to it as ‘reading’. Or in particular, ‘reading other’s emotions’.

His shoulder smacked up against the wall in the courtyard after he made it downstairs and outside. Eiichi heaved air in and out of his pulsing lungs as he watched the sakura trees in the spring light. His heart was racing. It took a while for his headache to go, but it had left him tired. It was also around this time that he found himself craving another smoke.

He had time. There was no one out here. He could light up and kill one in a few minutes, and if anyone came by, he’d sense them and put it out.

Eiichi drew the pack of Sparrow Natural 100’s out of his coat pocket and began patting it against his hand. He thumbed the top open, and raised it to his mouth, removing one between his lips.

He didn’t understand why it was this way for him. No one else had to deal with something like this. How would any of them handle it if they had to deal with their mood changing every few minutes because of someone else’s? The intense migraines that sapped the blood from everywhere else in his body. Having to experience someone else’s memories as if witnessing them firsthand. It might drive most of them out of their minds. They wouldn’t know how to handle it.

Eiichi had possessed this since birth. He didn’t wish it and he didn’t ask for it. For some reason, some invisible force of nature had decided that he should be born with this perpetually egregious thorn in his side. In the celestial lottery, his number, one of billions upon billions, had come up. He supposed it wasn’t all that bad, he counted himself lucky to still have all his limbs, and all his senses, although it seemed he had been accidentally given a sixth one. It was lonely, however. It wasn’t like there was a group of psychics and espers who convened in the market cafe every Thursday. However, Eiichi didn’t want to make the whole matter a spiritual one. This was just how things were.

***

After school, it was the same routine as always. Over the years, Eiichi had become a creature of habit, and he preferred this. It meant he wouldn’t have to do too much out of the ordinary, ordinary being what he strived for. He could also ignore the troubles of others. Helping them wouldn’t solve anything, there would just be another, and another, and more after that...The problems of others were astronomical. Everybody had problems, and it should be their decision to do something about it. The phrase ‘life sucks, and then you die’ was ever-prevalent, in his opinion.

It was about a ten minute train ride home. Eiichi’s home was a small one. Located in the lower middle class section of the city, it was a two story structure with a garage extension, back porch and two small balconies for the bedrooms on the second floor. It wasn’t run down, but modest, and it was home.

As he unlocked the front door, a large flash of black and white fur nearly barreled into him as Connor, his Siberian Husky, was eagerly there to greet him with a few barks and a violently wagging tail. Eiichi’s mother, who lived in Okinawa with his dad, had been the one who named him.

As Eiichi set his bag down and stood, Connor jumped up, placing his paws on Eiichi’s shoulders and licking his face vigorously.

Eiichi chuckled, leaning back, and scrubbed at the back of Connor’s ear, “Hey boy, miss me?”

On some days, Eiichi was just as excited to see Connor. Being able to pick up brain waves meant Eiichi could pick up the senses and processes of animals as well, which were delightfully basic. They were much like children, only their thoughts were consistent. When he was still in elementary school, his parents had brought Connor home when he was still a pup, knowing that he would be a helpful addition in maintaining Eiichi’s mood. With the regular joy and occasional calm atmosphere of his favorite four legged companion, Eiichi had to agree. They had quickly become close companions and Connor was probably the only reliable friend Eiichi had in his entire life. Sometimes he wondered if Connor knew exactly when he was in a bad mood, because he always seemed to come to his aid when the negative emotions were beginning to be a little cumbersome.

He kicked off his shoes at the genkan and dropped his bag by the staircase.

Eiichi would often grab whatever was in the fridge, sometimes it was just a beer, and he’d pour a little for Connor in his water dish. He’d watch TV while laid out on the couch, and took the occasional smoke break on the back porch.

Sometimes he would get up and take Connor for a walk through the neighborhood, and sometimes he took the train downtown. In doing this, he risked being around more people, but he felt it was good that he still remind himself of the world outside home, and having Connor with him was a plus.

His older brother arrived home from work around six. That was Torio, the taller, more classy and flirtatious ladies’ man of the pair, and he and Eiichi had a typical kind of relationship that could be expected of any pair of siblings.

“Wow, you are exactly where I thought you would be when I got home,” Torio remarked with a smirk at Eiichi, who was laid out on the couch with Connor at his feet.

Eiichi didn’t even look away from the LCD screen. “And I’m surprised you came home at all. Couldn’t get anyone to invite you back to their place, huh...”

“Nonsense, but who would feed you?”

Torio proceeded to place his car keys on the kitchen overlook counter and hung his blazer on the back of one of the overlook chairs.

He greeted Connor with a hearty pet between the ears. “Hey boy, if you keep giving him all the attention, he’ll never have a life.”

Connor responded with attempting a few laps at Torio’s somewhat long hair. Then Torio was off to the kitchen.

Torio was also a skilled cook. Being that it was just him and Eiichi living together, someone had to take care of kitchen duty. Eiichi helped out with cleaning, and on occasion, ran errands for Torio whenever there was a grocery list on the fridge door, but he left all the culinary chemistry to Torio, whom Eiichi could tell would be bothered having more than one chef in the kitchen. It wasn’t a very big kitchen anyways.

Torio getting home meant it was almost time for Eiichi to change into his gym shorts and step into the garage. He usually waited till about seven for this.

The garage was small as well. With Torio’s car parked in one half of the space, there was just enough room for Eiichi to make use of the punching pad he had hanging against the wall and the jump rope hanging on that.

Usually, by the time he was finished, dinner was ready.

“Looks great, you’ll make a good stay at home dad one day,” Eiichi poked.

“Uh-huh, and why don’t you take a shower so I don’t have to smell you while I’m trying to eat.”

Dinner would commence afterwards with more cracks between the two about work and school, there would be more television, and then Eiichi was off to bed.

On some nights he would lie awake before drifting off. The things he had felt and seen during the day would replay themselves in his mind. He wasn’t indifferent about them, or he didn’t intend to be. He was just something else. He couldn’t afford to get too close to anyone. And even when he considered it, some people just simply didn’t want to be helped.

***

By lunchtime the next day, Eiichi decided to find a different place out of sight of the other students, where that stubborn photo girl wouldn’t find him.

He was just on his way out, trudging through the mundane thoughts of the day.

“There you are!”

“Ah!”

She had managed to sneak up on him from out of the crowd. A couple of students stared, noticing he was being approached by someone who wasn’t a sensei, or hall monitor, or even angry with him.

“I thought I might find you here.”

And just as well, there was Noda with her perky attitude.

“Find me here? Are you clairvoyant or something?” It wouldn’t be so strange to him if she said yes.

“I told you, I’m a photographer, so I know this school in and out like the back of my hand. You can’t escape from me.” She ended this with a devious grin.

He faced her lackadaisically. “Ah yeah, fly on the wall and all that.”

“Ya know...I’m starting to get the feeling you don’t like me too much.”

“I don’t like anyone.”

He was kind of surprised she could be so light hearted, considering her mood. She was emitting an aura of excitement, but there was concern as well.

“Hm...So anyhoo, I went back to the place where you stomped that guy out.”

Now he was a little worried. “And why did you do that?”

“Take a look at these.”

Just like the day before, Noda had her camera on her. She presented the screen on the back and began flipping through a set of images by the clicking of a rotator switch.

She had definitely gone back to the spot, but what was different about it from the day before was that it was now more populated than she had explained.

“Is this the door you were talking about?” Eiichi asked.

“Yes it is, I took it while hiding in the trees just inside the fence. See how they’re all grouped around it like that?”

The image was of the back of the technology building that was adjacent to the main building. The building was a rough gray color and there was a pair of gray metal doors. In the image, there were three male figures, all wearing Aki Guro uniforms, and one of them was the one who attacked Noda. He could see the bruising on the guy’s face from when he worked him over.

“So you took a picture of three guys standing around a door. I don’t think they have an award for that.”

Noda gave him a dull glance before continuing. “They were like that for hours. I waited.”

“Wow, you’re pretty dedicated. Well, now that I look at it, they don’t seem like the type of guys that stand around doors often, maybe they’re training for an event. Standing around doors has been getting pretty popular.”

Noda lowered the camera. “Alright, could you stop the wise ass act for like five minutes and hear me out? This could be serious.”

“Okay, fine! But I don’t know what you’re on about with this. Get to the point.”

“What I’m saying is, I think they’re hiding something. Look, that’s the guy you beat up.”

“You think they’re hiding something in that room?”

“Yeah, the entire time none of them left. And then see here?”

She flipped through the images to several of a fourth student appearing and joining the three. He had a purple beanie and was the only one toting a backpack.

“Yeah?”

“That guy with the backpack showed up with a key. He went inside with one of them. They came back out ten minutes later, and then they all walked off.”

Eiichi peered closer at the photos.

“Now that is suspicious...” he muttered.

Noda continued in her wary excitement, “If one of them hadn’t attacked me, I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but this is just too bizarre.”

Eiichi leaned back, “Alright, well, you did a good job there photo girl, now all you have to do is report it to the school.”

“Actually, I was thinking we should check it out.”

“Ha! Why bother? The school can sort it out, it’s their problem.” With the wave of a hand, he began walking away.

Noda padded up next to him. “Oh come on, I thought you were a tough guy. These images aren’t enough to catch someone’s attention, they look like they’re just running an errand or something. We need to take a closer look.”

“Hey, if it’s something happening on school campus, they should be able to handle it.”

“Come on, where’s you sense of adventure? You’re not seriously going to wimp out on me.”

“You can say whatever you want about me, I couldn’t give a damn.”

“I’m just asking you to come take a look.”

“Call the cops or something. Just leave me out of it.”

Noda stopped following, and let him continue ahead.

“Fine, I’ll just go alone.”

This got him to stop.

She was just looking for trouble! He almost suspected her of egging that guy on to attack her!

‘Hey fatso! Yeah you! I can’t take any pictures with your lard ass in the way!…Ah! Help! Somebody save me~!’

But he knew better.

Eiichi could hold his own in a conflict, but he wasn’t the type to go walking down dark alleys waiting to get mugged, and he definitely wasn’t about to let her do it.

He turned around and walked right up to her. “Oh, oh no you’re not.”

Noda looked right back at him with a straight expression that was just a little too troublesome for his liking. “What, are you gonna’ stop me?”

“You went back there alone and managed to keep out of sight because you knew there was a threat. Now you want to go back there again? What will you do if you get caught, again?”

“That’s why I asked you to come. If there are any guys there, I have you as my muscle.”

His face grew a dull look. “I’m flattered...”

“Come on, we’re just going to take another quick look and see if we can sniff out anything.”

And with that, Noda was off, coaxing him along to the beat of her own drum.

With a roll of his eyes, and feeling rather tired, Eiichi proceeded forward. “Fine...”

They took a peek around first, to make sure the area was clear. Seeing no one, Noda and Eiichi stepped out into the open and up to the back door.

It was a plain, old pair of metal doors, with a concrete foot pad at its base, and other than that, there wasn’t much else to be seen. The remaining area was also concrete sidewalk, with a nearby recycle dumpster. Eiichi figured Noda wanted to scope it out first, just in case there had been something she missed.

“Not really much to see,” she admitted, echoing his very thoughts.

Eiichi stood by, hands in his pockets. “Nope, just the empty backside of a school. Satisfied?”

Noda craned her head and looked near the roof.

“No security cameras.”

The back of the school wasn’t known for having heavy surveillance, another reason why Eiichi chose it for his smoke breaks.

Noda placed her hands on both knobs and gave them a jiggle and then a tug.

“It’s locked. And this is a faculty only exit, it’s used mainly by maintenance.”

“So, they’re stealing cleaning supplies. Not much of a crime if you ask me. Although, they can be used to make a lot of things...” He could remember watching a documentary on what was needed to cook certain illegal substances.

“Let’s head to the front and see if we can get inside.”

Just then, he could feel a particular kind of conniving mentality slowly approaching them from behind.

Eiichi muttered a warning to Noda. “We’ve got company...”

“Hey there, Kozuka,” a booming voice sounded from behind them.

“Ah shit...” Eiichi snarled.

Noda looked around frantically for a moment, “Wait, who’s Kozuka!?”

Noda and Eiichi turned to find three thuggish looking types standing roughly eight feet from them. Two of them had been featured in Noda’s photos, and all three had a baseball bat in hand.

The largest one, the one who had spoken, stood between the other two, his bat slung over his shoulder. “My boy here tells me you roughed him up pretty good defending your girlfriend there.”

The punk from earlier stood next to the leader, sporting the shiner and bruised jawline Eiichi had administered.

Eiichi could feel Noda’s unease giving him a slight throbbing, and she looked to him.

“Who are they?”

Eiichi spoke, not caring if the other three heard what he had to say. “That’s Okanaya Mito. A brainless, back stabbing, jackass son of a deadbeat father if I ever knew one. He was busted as a strong arm for a small time gambling ring somewhere uptown about a year ago. He did half a year in a juvenile pin. I gotta’ say, I didn’t miss ‘em.”

And then he raised his voice to Okanaya. “Yeah, that looks like my handiwork. What of it?”

“Well the whole situation sounds pretty backwards if you ask me. He was only sayin’ hello. Maybe you oughta’ apologize to ‘em. Send the girl over and all is forgiven.”

Eiichi could sense this really sent shivers through Noda’s frame.

“Okanaya, you’re about as dumb as you look. I wouldn’t believe half a word from your butt buddies over there, even if I had to risk everything I hold dear.”

Noda hissed at Eiichi, “Don’t make them angry!”

“It’s a little late for that…”

‘Though they are emitting a lot of cautiousness. They are hiding something. Their conniving is so invasive, suddenly I feel like I need a shower.’

“If that’s how you feel, then I guess this isn’t gonna’ end well for you,” Okanaya said.

Eiichi felt both Noda and himself grow tense. This was exactly the kind of trouble he wanted to avoid, but nooo~, she wanted to play sleuth.

Noda fidgeted. “Well then, do your thing.”

Eiichi heaved a sigh and stepped forward. He took his stance and raised his half curled fists before his face.

Then, before the other three could move, he whipped around, grabbed Noda’s wrist, and bolted off in the direction they came, hoping she wouldn’t trip over herself.

“Run!”

“What!?” Noda shrieked.

He heard Okanaya shout from behind, “Get back here!”

They cut back into the spacing of buildings, the three armed thugs tailing just twenty feet behind. Eiichi pushed forward in a sprint, still hoping the force from him tugging on Noda wouldn’t make her trip, or else he’d have to go back for her and then they’d really be in trouble. Still, she picked up her legs and managed to keep up. He had to get them to a densely populated part of the school, there was no way Okanaya and his friends would follow after that.

He could hear Noda nagging from behind him as he continued to tug on her arm. “I thought you were a fighter! What about bravery and all that!?”

“Bravery doesn’t amount to much when you’ve been sent to the hospital by three guys with baseball bats!”

They cut around a building and Eiichi noticed a set of flower beds near an awning that were just high enough to shield them both.

“Here!”

A few moments later, footsteps could be heard in the area. They passed the flower beds, but stopped.

“Lost ‘em. Spread out! They couldn’t have gotten far!”

The footfalls continued forward and faded.

Noda and Eiichi were face to face, both hunched down over their knees, as low as they could get.

Eiichi focused hard on their general area, trying to act as a radar. Noda’s tension was causing him a headache as she was doing her best to keep her breathing silent, but he had to focus beyond that and make sure none of them stayed behind to search.

“Okay...I think they’re gone.”

Their heads popped up from behind the bed and scanned the area. Only two other students had been nearby to witness the chase, but they were far away, directly across the open area.

“What was that!?” Noda suddenly flared at him.

“Sh!”

She swung her fists above her head. “I thought you were going to pummel them!”

Eiichi pointed a finger. “Hey, I volunteered to be your guard, I didn’t say I was frickin’ Bruce Lee! I coulda’ been killed!”

Suddenly she lowered her arms, and her output, though still curious, became very cautious and afraid, her voice dimming to a mutter.

“Wait a minute...are you Eiichi Kozuka?” she pointed.

“What...”

“Kozuka, are you thee Eiichi Kozuka?”

“I figured people knew about me, but damn.”

“So that’s why you wouldn’t give me your name...”

“What is?”

She clammed up, averting her eyes while pressing her index fingers together, “Well...let’s just say some of the things I’ve heard about you haven’t been something you want to put on a resume...”

“I can only imagine...” Eiichi frowned.

“Like how you fake headaches, you’re a weirdo, you’re always trying to get pity from students, get money from the school...”

“Okay! You don’t have to list them out, I’ve heard it all before.”

She claimed to know a lot about the school, but how could she miss that he was the infamous ‘Hypochondriac of Aki Guro High’? She seemed to latch on to anything that had a story to it, what made her skip that one? Not that he was complaining...

Given the irate outbursts they had exchanged, Eiichi figured if Okanaya and his guys had still been in the area, they would have doubled back by now.

“Let’s find a place where there’s more people.”

They stood and Eiichi proceeded to lead, keeping an eye out in case their pursuers returned.

“What was that all about? They responded pretty extremely,” Noda asked.

“They definitely don’t want anyone going near that area. They’re hiding something alright.”

“Maybe we should alert the school.”

“Nah, these guys have a plan. Like I said, Okanaya isn’t very smart, but he works with people that are. They know we’ve been poking around now, so they’ve probably already started covering things up in case we did say anything. As far as I know, Okanaya doesn’t attend our school, and I don’t remember seeing any of those guys around. I wonder where they got those uniforms.”

That situation had been too close for comfort, and he could see now that whatever was going on was bigger than a simple dispute or a lie. Considering had they narrowly escaped certain agony, it could be possible whatever was going on would prove just as bad for anyone else who came across what Okanaya was trying to pull off.

Eiichi wasn’t one to get mixed up in other people’s business, but it just didn’t feel right for him to see someone’s life in danger and just let it slide. Okanaya knew him, and there was no telling what might happen to him or this girl, if he succeeded. Eiichi just hoped she’d be willing to go along with what he had in mind.

“So what do you think we should do?”

“We go with your original plan. We need to find out what’s so important about that room.”

Noda stepped closer, an uneasy humility in her voice. “Hey-hey, I know I might’ve given you a hard time about not wanting to come with, but you shouldn’t get all heroic on me now. This is really serious.”

“Yup, serious enough they were willing to give me a fractured skull over it, and do who knows what to you.”

“Don’t say it like that! It gives me the creeps!” Noda squealed, clutching her arms against her chest. “Do you really have to be so blunt!?”

“If it’s serious enough for them to chase us off like that, I don’t want them to be caught prematurely and wind up with just a slap on the wrist.”

“Um, okay...When do you suppose we should do this...”

“They’re probably only running the low end of their operations during the day. I suggest we wait until later tonight and come back for another look. That may be when things get the liveliest. I need you and your camera. If you can get pictures of that, that should be enough. What say you?”

“I suppose I can sneak out of my room once everyone’s asleep. Um...how is it that you know all this stuff?”

“Let’s just say I’m around their kind enough.”

They had a few minutes of lunchtime left, so they took advantage to grab what they could and find a nicely populated place to eat outside.

Eiichi was surprised at how Noda was holding up, for a girl that had been dangerously taken out of her normal day to day. This day as well had been rather eventful, but Eiichi was even more thrown off to find himself suddenly eating lunch with another person, and a girl of all things.

“Ya know, you’re not all that much like the rumors say.”

“Hm? How’s aht?” Eiichi spoke with a mouthful of the leftovers from Torio’s masterpiece the night before.

Noda looked at him, the tips of her hashi on her lips after taking a bite of salmon, “People keep saying you fake your headaches, but it doesn’t seem like you’ve faked anything since I’ve met you, except for your name. You’re actually brutally honest. Do you really get migraines sometimes?”

‘Her curiosity is getting ridiculous. She truly has that photographer mindset.’

Right here Eiichi realized, since meeting Noda, he hadn’t come under much mental turmoil around her. It was only that on occasion, her hyperactive brain waves could give him the spins, and that she had already put his life in danger once, which he supposed was some kind of turmoil. But as long as he didn’t insult her passion, he was mostly in the clear. She wasn’t of a depressed or angry spirit, and in fact, her general attitude had been a nice escape from the usual.

“That’s a personal matter. Lots of people get migraines all the time,” he said, poking his rice.

“Yeah, but I’ve heard that you’ve been to the infirmary so many times, everybody there knows you by name.”

“It happens. Could we stop making this about me?”

“Hm...okay. Um, so how do you know that Okanaya guy?”

“Back when I was in junior high, he used to run with a group of guys. They would come through my neighborhood and terrorize students on their way home, tag up some places, slash tires, just stupid kid stuff. I got into it with them a couple times.”

“Wow, so I guess you got to know each other in a way.”

“Yeah. He went to my school for a while, and then was expelled. I don’t think Okanaya ever really stayed in any one school, but I’m pretty sure in middle school he was a second year when I was a first year, which would make him old enough to be a third year now. He disappeared some time before I started high school, which must mean he got into some heavier stuff around that time.”

“Then this is a chance to see just what he’s gotten into. Wanna go over the plan again?”

“Sure.” Eiichi set his bento down. “So Okanaya has to be working with someone who’s set this whole thing up.”

“I looked up the school map on my phone. We may not have to check the room.” Noda removed her smartphone and presented the screen. “That building is the technology building, my clubs sometimes use it for editing the newspaper app and yearbook files. That door does lead to a maintenance room, but see these two rooms here, that’s the computer science room and the other one is a room for storing chemistry supplies. My best guess is that they’re stealing computers and equipment from there. The other day I thought I heard some sensei talking about a few boxes of brand new software going missing.”

“Nice job, if that’s the case, we can get pictures of them leaving with the stolen goods. If they’re selling it, they probably don’t want to split the profit too much. I’d imagine they have roughly less than ten guys working with them on this. You said there was a fourth guy that showed up, right?”

“Right.”

“So that might be all they’re working with during the day to keep a low profile. They’re probably just looking around and taking minor things during the day, and planning to steal the larger stuff at night.”

“We may not have much time then.” Noda pointed her hashi at him.

“What do you mean?”

“You said that they might back off because of the two times we’ve been caught.”

“Yeah?”

“Tonight could be the last night, if they are doing anything.”

“You could be right. If they’re looking to steal a lot of stuff from the school, they might have been working at it for a few days and waiting for the right time to move everything. Once it’s done, they’ll never be heard from again.”

Eiichi placed the lid back on his bento and stood. “Okay, let’s meet outside the burger place a block from here. I’ll send you a text when I’m ready to head out and you let me know when you’re ready to move as well.”

“Gotcha.”

Then he suddenly remembered something.

“And you...” He turned and pointed at Noda, causing her eyes to widen and fixate on his index with confusion.

“Wear something black.”

***

Eiichi stood out by the street in a pair of dark jeans and a black pullover hoodie he just thankfully happened to have stashed away in his closet. The sun had gone down an hour ago, and the lights from inside the fast food place and other nearby shops shone out into the street.

Noda had responded to his text shortly after he left, so he figured she would have been here by now. He was working his way through another cigarette when she appeared from up the walkway. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing as she trotted her way up to him.

She was wearing a hoodie too. It was light and obviously not meant for the cold, but the color was not even close to what he had specified. A bright, baby blue hue stared him in the face along with a pair of bright gray bike shorts.

“Didn’t you hear me!? I said wear something black!”

She jerked her fists down and fumed at him, “This was the darkest thing I could find!”

She looked like she was going out shopping with her friends. Why didn’t she just go all the way and bring a flashing neon sign that said STAKEOUT. As if it couldn’t stand out anymore, there was a large character print of a teddy bear face that nearly covered the whole front.

Eiichi frowned. “I’m starting to get a better idea of just what kind of girl you are...”

Noda’s cheeks blossomed a vibrant pink. “Don’t give me that judgmental look!”

Aside from her clothes, she had a large, black satchel hanging next to her hip.

“You’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb. Let’s just hope the low visibility will help things.”

“If anything, I’ll just look like an innocent girl out for a walk who happened upon a mugger. You’ll get locked up and I can decide when to post your bail.”

“Ha ha...”

It didn’t take long to get to the school.

Save for a few fluorescent blue lights along the walls, the school looked as dark and unpopulated as it should be at this hour. The stone bases for the perimeter gates were low, but the gates themselves were high. Fortunately, there were tower-like posts that were large and also made of brick, which the fencing ran between. Each of these bases had a ledge that was high enough it would require a little climb for one, but for two people trying to get in, it would not require as much work.

“Let’s be careful getting in here. If we get caught, it’s gonna look like we’re the ones breaking in,” Eiichi muttered as he approached the gate.

“We are, wise guy.”

“Just get over here so I can give you a boost.”

Eiichi knelt down with his hands cupped together.

Noda stopped. “Really? Uh, I dunno’...”

“Don’t make it weird. Come on.”

“O-Okay...”

Noda edged up to him and placed one tennis shoe in his hands while balancing herself on his shoulders.

“D-Don’t look, okay,” she stuttered.

“What am I going to look at?”

“Oh, you are just asking to get kicked in the head.”

For a girl like Noda, who wasn’t used to this kind of moving around, she didn’t have much trouble once Eiichi got her up to where she could hoist herself over the post and place a foot in the cramped space between two rods of fencing. She clambered to the other side and hung from the ledge again before letting go, but stumbled and fell on her butt after hitting the ground. Eiichi used the fence to pull his other hand closer to the ledge, and soon jumped down to join Noda.

They found the spot, and from where they were, they could clearly see the dumpster, the concrete pad and the back door to the computer science building, which was closed.

“Dammit...no one there,” Eiichi hissed.

“Maybe we’re early.”

“Or late.”

“Nu-uh, club activities went late today, I was one of the last to leave. There was still too much happening on campus for them to try anything.”

Eiichi looked over at her. ‘She’s being overly cautious about something. Maybe it’s just her nerves.’

Noda opened up her satchel and began taking items out. It was pretty dark where they were, but Eiichi thought he saw her take out her camera and some kind of stand, along with a few other indiscriminate items.

“What’s that?” he asked.

Noda had grabbed her camera and began attaching something to it.

“It’s a super high resolution extension for my camera. I also have a backup cam in here, a compact tripod, and a night optics adapter.”

“I was wondering what you had in that bag. You come pretty well equipped for a stakeout, even if your wardrobe needs some work.”

He couldn’t see her face very well, but based on her output, she had been smiling at this.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Phones on silent, right?”

Noda checked hers to be certain. “Yup.”

“I guess we wait...”

***

An hour had passed without a single stirring on the other end of the clearing. Noda spent her time trying to keep busy by making adjustments on her gadgets, keeping her camera mounted on the mini stand and trained on the maintenance door. Eiichi had been sitting against a tree. With nothing to do and unable to light up another smoke while waiting, he had been poking around in the dirt with a stick and stealing long glances at the back of the tech building.

Finally, he tossed the stick and got into a crouch position.

“I’m gonna go take a look.”

Noda strained under her breath, “Kozuka, don’t!”

“I’m just gonna’ see if it’s locked or not. If they’ve left already, we’ll be here all night, but they probably wouldn’t bother locking it again. If it’s unlocked, we can go around to the front of the school and see if there’s anyone here. If there isn’t, then we can go home. Ready your phone to send me a text if you see anyone.”

Noda let out a nervous sigh and didn’t say any more.

He pulled his hood up over his head and snuck out of the bushes, moving toward the building at a low trot, his eyes scanning the area for any movement.

When he was close, he straightened out and moved to the door. He almost had his hand to the knob.

‘Someone’s close.’

A lax, male voice spoke from behind him, “Whoa, whoa, that’s far enough Kozuka.”

Eiichi whipped around to see three figures had stepped into the fluorescent light behind him.

‘Shit! Asako, I told you to let me know if someone was coming!’

Two of the figures were still wearing Aki Guro uniforms, and Eiichi recognized them from before when they had chased Noda and him off. But the third was wearing a white blazer and slacks and had long hair. The voice had come from this one, and he carried himself with an air of false confidence that only a career liar could muster.

“I thought you might be showing up, after my guys told me all about how you’ve been sniffing around what we’re doing here, so I had us set up a little waiting party, just for you.”

He had a weasel face. He talked like a weasel too.

The door opened up from behind him, and he had to step forward as two more members, one of them Okanaya, stepped out. Okanaya traded places with one of the guys in front, who stepped behind Eiichi so he was surrounded.

All of them, except for weasel face, were wielding bats, crowbars and tire irons.

Just like he had suspected, Okanaya had been working with someone who must be the brains of the operation. He didn’t know this guy, but he thought he remembered hearing some rumors going around, about a year ago, that had to do with Okanaya’s bust.

There was a name that kept coming up for some time, someone Okanaya had been working with.

He eyed the guy with long hair closely. “Tsuchiyama, am I right?”

“So you know me,” Tsuchiyama nodded.

“I know of you. It figures it would be you.”

“Oh really, what tipped you off?”

“Your name has popped up a few times in the past year. You really like coming up with these half-baked schemes, don’t you? You shouldn’t have put Okanaya on guard duty, or I wouldn’t have had a clue.”

Tsuchiyama couldn’t help letting out a self-gratifying cackle. “This may be the first time we’ve met, but I’m starting to get that you pick up on things pretty quick.”

“Yeah, everyone keeps telling me that...”

“So what is it Kozuka? You lookin’ to get in on what we got going here?”

“I was just a little curious why a bunch of teenage thugs are so interested in breaking into a school campus.”

Tsuchiyama raised a coy hand. “It should be obvious, shouldn’t it?”

“What? Stolen office equipment? Talk about small time.”

This pestered Tsuchiyama a little. “Hey! There’s a lot of money to be had in it, but if you’re not interested, oh well.”

“You idiots are still wearing your uniforms. Stand out much? I know most of you don’t even attend this school, so if you get caught on video, they’ll know about that little tidbit.”

‘Asako, you had better be taking pictures right now...’

Tsuchiyama chuckled. “We’re not worried about surveillance. Don’t you know it’s wrong to go around sticking your nose in other people’s business?”

“I have a knack for it, what can I say?”

A shriek from out in the trees interrupted their conversation.

“Kyah! Let go of me! Let go!”

It was Noda!

Tsuchiyama continued, “Well, there’s something I have a knack for as well. My boys told me you weren’t working alone, and just as I thought, you brought back up.”

Two struggling figures staggered into the light. The sixth and final member had Noda, with one arm held behind her back, and his wrapped around her waist.

Eiichi felt the blood rush from his face, causing tingling in his cheeks and fingers. “Asako, you alright?”

“Kozuka, do something!” Noda cried.

“Check it out boss,” her captor said, rather amused. “This bitch started screaming before I even found her. Must’ve got caught on somethin’ and spooked her, haha!”

Tsuchiyama let out another cackle, “Haha! Wow, she’s not half bad looking for an otaku. You really know how to reel ‘em in, Kozuka,” ending with sarcasm.

Eiichi snarled, “Looking at adding kidnapping and sex crimes to your rap sheet now?”

“Hey, can’t blame a guy for wanting to have a little fun. We could claim her as a little bonus prize after we’re done here.”

“Ah! Kozuka, help!”

‘Hang in there Asako...’

Suddenly, something stood out to him that wasn’t obvious until now. Noda’s output wasn’t conveying as much fear as she was showing. There was that scheming again. She was holding back something that she was very focused on. She was still terrified, but she was also acting. She clung to this thing with all of her mental strength. What had she done while he was away?

If she had something in mind, he could not allow himself to remain still. Noda had doubt too, and if whatever she was planning didn’t work, he couldn’t afford to not be ready with his own move.

Fighting back would be risking it. Even if he did manage to disarm one of them, he’d have the other four to deal with.

‘There has to be something here. Something I’m missing. Their devious emotions are so putrid, it’s like wading through hot garbage...’

Okanaya had worked with Tsuchiyama before. Eiichi could remember seeing the bust in the news and reading up on it. Tsuchiyama’s name had never been mentioned, but Eiichi had run into a lot of talk about him from the delinquents both in and out of school. And the amount the police found in store hadn’t been anything impressive, even for a small gambling ring. And a bunch of high school kids could not set something up like that without some power backing it.

He looked up just in time to see Okanaya approach Tsuchiyama. Okanaya wasn’t happy, Eiichi could feel it. They stepped back a moment and seemed to be whispering to each other heatedly. Eiichi couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they were close enough that he didn’t have to.

‘Contempt, things aren’t going so well. Okanaya’s been quiet until now.’

“Hey Okanaya, so what’s your piece in all this? You playing Tsuchiyama’s little guard dog again?”

Okanaya turned on Eiichi and pointed. “Eh, fuck you Kozuka!”

“Did he tell you how much you’d be making out of this? When was the last time he paid you?”

Tsuchiyama sauntered away from Okanaya. “Why do you gotta bust my balls, Kozuka?”

“Well, all I’m saying is I heard a few things about that gambling ring that got busted about a year ago. The word was that a lot of people got put away for a while, including Okanaya here. I also heard that you were in charge of the whole thing.”

Tsuchiyama’s face grew stern, some of that confident front beginning to crumble.

‘He knows what I’m talking about, but there’s something else.’

“What are you getting at?” Tsuchiyama asked.

“Well, you n’ Okanaya have been working together so long, I would’ve thought you’d be a lot closer by now, since you both were arrested in that.”

‘Guilt. He was involved, but something else happened. He doesn’t care, but he would rather forget about it right now.’

Eiichi focused on Okanaya, ‘He has full recognition of what happened. Pride, and then depression. As soon as I mentioned the bust, he felt pride for having jail time that he could boast about, but depression about the actual time spent.’

Tsuchiyama pushed forward, “What the fuck is this? Why are you wasting my time?”

Eiichi smoothed out his words in a grim tone, “It’s a simple question. I just wanted to know if you two got to be cell mates. So Okanaya, has he told you what you’ll be making?”

“Alright, shut him up!” Tsuchiyama sounded panicked.

“Why don’t you tell him?”

Suddenly Okanaya became very uneasy. “You said we’d make bank!”

Tsuchiyama turned. “And we will! After you get rid of him and we get the hell out of here!”

“Is that all he told you?” Eiichi inserted.

Okanaya looked to him warily, “Yeah...”

“And you didn’t ask about when you’d be getting the money? Did he even tell you how he was going about selling them and how long it would take?”

Tsuchiyama stepped in. “He’s fuckin’ with you Okanaya! He doesn’t know shit!”

“He said he’d take care of it,” Okanaya muttered.

“And you didn’t find that a little funny? Okanaya, why’re you still rolling’ with this guy?”

“He said it was cool.”

“And you just took his word for it?”

Okanaya looked down at the grass, and it seemed like he was actually pondering the situation and thinking things through for the first time.

“Did you even see him after you got busted?” Eiichi added.

“No, they cuffed us and sat us on the curb before taking us to the station.”

“And did you see any of the money out of that deal?”

“No, it was all confiscated.”

“Was it? Because on the news, they said the cops only confiscated some ten-thousand yen. It made you guys look like a bunch of amateurs.”

“Shit no, we were running for at least a couple months. We were raking in five mill!”

“Isn’t it a little weird that somehow Tsuchiyama and five-million yen in gambling funds go missing all in the same day? Did you even see him while serving time?”

Everyone else, including Noda, had fallen silent and stood still as this exchange occurred.

Okanaya looked away again. His confusion flailed about, seeking a clear answer to the points Eiichi made. He was even beginning to feel a little scared that he had made a big mistake. And then rage appeared, painting his output in vibrant orange and red shades.

‘Gotcha’...’

Now it was time to work the brain, who was feeling pretty vulnerable now, his false confidence having fled him. Eiichi smoothed his predatory gaze on Tsuchiyama.

“You’re looking pretty scared, Tsuchiyama. Why aren’t you showing your henchman any love?”

Suddenly, Okanaya lifted his head at Tsuchiyama with clenched fists. “I thought you got caught like the rest of us!?”

“I told you, I did! They sent me to a different pin!”

Eiichi’s malignant voice smoothed in as he continued to entice Okanaya, while painting his boss a darker and darker shade of black, “Nah, I don’t think Tsuchiyama served time. He got away with the money and then laid low for a while, made sure no one on the street saw his face. He probably made the call himself and split. He could probably still apply for a job without question because his record is clean.”

“You lying son of a bitch!” Okanaya shouted.

‘All true. He’s just getting more and more guilty.’

“You set us up!”

The thug holding Noda tossed in his lot. “Let’s kick his ass and get outta’ here!”

Eiichi continued, “And he’s probably gonna’ do it again. That’s what happens when you run with the same crew and don’t pay attention to their actions, Okanaya.”

Okanaya advanced toward Tsuchiyama and grabbed him by the collar. “I’m gonna’ kill you, and take all the money for myself!”