Monday, August 9, 2021
Today, Aichi needed to pass through another route to get to school, since his usual route, which was the route through the cinema, got blocked because of a murder that happened. With each step he had anxiety fill him until he was near a coffee shop. There he saw sitting at a chair sipping coffee was none other than Seiko, who turned her head and also spotted Aichi. After a moment of looking at each other, their faces begin to get red as images of yesterday flashed in their minds. "Oi.." Kokoshi appears and taps on Seiko's shoulder.
"Kyaaa!"
"Oh.. It's Aichi..that's why you were blushing"
"Konechan..nows not the time.."
"Yo!" Raigi calls from a distance, "Senpai?!"Aichi responds "Are you also passing through this route because of the murder?"Seiko asks
"What Murder? I live on this street"
"Oh."
"Well! Well! Good to see you! Kokoshi! Sekininsha! And Ai-kun!"
"Wait, since when were you allowed to call me that?!"
"Since now..."
"But Seiko-chan is the only one who calls me that! And knowing her, she doesn't like it when.." Aichi turns to see a violent looking Seiko, looking like a dog ready to pounce anytime.
"Well, if you really aren't dating, then I should be allowed to call you that. Or maybe Sekininsha is jealous!"
"Okay, I really think you shouldn't go any further or else-"
Two books strike Raigi at the back of his head, knocking him to the ground courtesy of Seiko and Kokoshi. "Thanks Kone-chan.." "Hey, this is the most efficient way to shut him up.." "Now I feel like Senpai was the murderer."
"WHAT MURDER?!" Raigi angrily asks
"..."
"Aichi.." Seiko softly calls
"Huh?"
"You're being silent.."
"Oh. It's nothing.. We gotta go.."
"Now that you say it, its 10 minutes till class time,"
And they started dashing.
*
"Hey guys.." Seiko calls as Kokoshi and Raigi step on the stairs and Aichi begins to walk down the hallway, "Let's meet up at lunchtime on the rooftop."
"Oh yeah, our Lunches are at the same time, today.." Kokoshi points outta
"Well then, see ya!" Raigi waves as they scatter.
Aichi walk into the room and starts positioning his stuff on his chair. He then spots an envelope under his chair, he grabs and opens it, his eyes widen at what he reads., "This is for Seiko, why would they leave it here?"
*
The bell rings. He dashes to find Raigi resting near the hallways with a large object in his lap. He twists his hand in order to rotate a screwdriver, tightening some screws on the object. "Oh. Aichi.Just go up.. I'll catch up to you.."
"If you say so.. Senpai.."
He runs up the stairs and opens the door to the rooftop.
There he sees Seiko facing away from him. She stares at the distant view that the rooftop is giving her access to. Vigorous wind splashes at her face as it spreads out causing her hair to fly in Aichi's direction. Air also moves towards Aichi, making his face a little colder, "Freezing." Aichi softly comments on the temperature. Normally someone wouldn't be able to hear that, let alone someone whose ears are preoccupied with the sound of monsoon wind. But Seiko heard it. She turned. The wind was still blowing past her. It blew the bangs that always covered her right eye. For a moment, Aichi was able to see her face without anything standing in between, "Ai...chi.."
"Huh? You're not calling me Aikun?"
"..."
"You were so serious about you being the only one who can call me that, and here you are calling me by my normal name.."
"Why? Do you want me to call you by a cute name?"
"N-no.. It just feels peculiar."
Seiko smiles and turns to face the wind once again, "I've been thinking.. I call you Aikun, yet I only know a bit about you.."
"Is that so?"
"Aichi.." Seiko lets go of the railings.
She turns towards Aichi, "about yesterday.."
Aichi starts to cross his arms.
"Oh right, you should sit down first.."
He sits down on the floor.
Seiko approaches.
"What about yesterday?" He stares up at her looking down at him. She then squats down so that their gazes are on equal level.
"..."
"We should be eating.. I don't think staring contests are appropriate right now.."
"Can I come by your house later?"
"Eh?"
"I'm gonna go grab the valentine shirts..."
"Oh! Right.." Aichi replies hesitantly, he then thinks "I thought she would bring up me holding her hand yesterday.."
"Also.."
"Hm?"
"You should try and experience the monsoon wind as well.."
"There's no need to" Seiko's stands up to grab onto the railings as wind flows past her again, "c'mon!"
"Fine.."
Aichi stands up and follows Seiko to the railings.
"See?"
"Pretty cold.. Looks like December is closer than I thought..."
"Yeah,"
"She seems pretty happy about the winds," Aichi thought
A leaf blows towards the two. Aichi attempts to grab the leaf. He grabs the leaf and realizes that there's a second pair of fingers that are holding onto it, Seiko's.
They let go of the leaf.
*
"If you think about it, why did we grab the leaf?" Seiko asks as her elbows are placed on the railings, both her palms at her face.
"That's human instinct, I guess."
"Hm?"
"I don't really know.. I'm not that great at biology."
"That was a correct answer.."
"Oh. Really?"
Seiko nods.
"Hm.."
"They say that our ancestors were wild hunters who created weapons and technology to help them fight creatures for food,"
"..."
"Now we use our Figures to fight the Mojidori, but it's not for food.."
"Well.. were supposed to prevent casualti-"
"I know that.."
Aichi gulps.
"You realize that we're killing one to save many.."
"Majority wins, that's what our leadership runs on.."
"Leaders, huh..."
"Speaking of leaders.."
"..."
"Uh, nevermind..."
"..."
"..."
"Still, couldn't there be a way for all to survive?"
Aichi smiles, "What do you think we're looking for, right now?"
"I guess so. 5:00 in front of the school, okay?"
"Alright,"
"..."
"There's something wrong isn't there.."
"I was just kind of bothered about yesterday,"
"You mean about Senpai-"
"Yo!" Raigi barges in.
The two look to their sides to see both Raigi and Kokoshi marching in. Raigi is carrying a large metallic object and a toolbox and is playfully skipping towards the guardrails. While Kokoshi carries her laptop and some wires and extension cords on her other hand. Both do a cross-sitting position on the ground, "So.. how's your convo?"
"We would rather not talk about it.."
"Alright then.."
After some typing noises, Kokoshi hands over a small blue rectangular object to Raigi. Raigi thanks Kokoshi and grabs it.
"???" Aichi and Seiko both make a confused face over the two's sudden pacifism.
"Hm?" Raigi notices.
Both look away.
"Hey, what's with the confused faces?"
"They don't know yet, Raigi. You forgot to tell them.."
"Oh right.. Aichi, Sekininsha.. Me and Kokoshi are now partners!"
"Eh?" Both get even more confused.
*
"Oh. So you two do inventions together, now?"
"Basically.. She does the programming and software related things, while I do the electronics and hardware.."
"That makes sense,"
"Now, I want you to test out our first project,"
"Huh?"
Raigi tosses the large metal object at Seiko. "Kyaaa!" Seiko screams. Aichi jumps in to protect Seiko and the object hits him.
It didn't hurt. It merely bounced off of him like a pillow.
"Eh?"
"That's an electromagnetic sniper, you think it would be that hard and heavy? I made that out of metal-like polymer. I call it..
Tsuraigo!
"
"Why would you suddenly make an electromagnetic sniper?"
"I was inspired by the Mojidori yesterd-"
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhh, Konechan might hear you and start crying again.."
"No need, I'm over it,"
"Well that was fast,"
"Ahem. As I was saying, Nujikoto's Figure was called OUT OF THIS WORLD, it uses an electromagnetic field to pick up objects and throw them into the exosphere. I was inspired and asked Kokoshi to help me make one."
Kokoshi nods while pressing a key on her laptop, the object turned into a gun with a long barrel and a thick rectangular body. The handle was very long and had a display on the side showing numbers. "Woah."
"You're the weapons girl on this team so I thought you could test it out."
"Sure.."
"Hey Kokoshi.."
"Hm?"
"Turn it up to max,"
"Why?"
"Starting with the highest is the best way to test something out,"
"Fine, but I won't be guilty if it doesn't go well,"
Kokoshi types something on her laptop. The display on the gun showed, "Pressure: 314000 PSI"
"Wait.. wait.. wait.. Over Three Hundred Thousand? This isn't good."
Seiko places her finger on the trigger. After a bit of pause, she put down the gun, "Sorry, but this is too dangerous.."
"... That's a plus!,"
"How is that a plus?"
""
"Still, I'm impressed. Three Hundred Thousand PSI is enough to fire a bullet at 1000 times the speed of sound,"
"Thank you, how about you? What have you two been up to. Ha! That rhymed!"
"Well.. lets just say, it's a personal thing.."
"Oh I see. Alright, lets eat!"
The four of them put their hands together,"Thank you for the food,"
"Hey Raigi.."
"Hm?"
"Wanna taste my cooking?"
"Huh? Oh! Nono no! I don't need to-" Kokoshi sticks her food into Raigi's mouth
"Chew..chew..Wait a minute, this tastes better than the last one.."
*
"Man, what a day!"
"..."
Aichi and Seiko make their way towards Aichi's house, "Oh! I can't wait to learn your deepest, darkest secrets, Aikun,"
"You sound like a stalker,"
"Hey! I'm just curious.. You always keep stuff to yourself, finding out why would be valuable information,"
"Well, I keep stuff to myself because I don't want other people to see my deepest darkest secrets,"
"Oh c'mon. If I told you mine you would be happy too,"
"And why is that?"
"You're close with a popular girl, if you can get even closer, you'll also become popular,"
"I don't think that's how it works."
"But admit it, you would be happy to learn my secrets,"
"I guess,"
"See?"
*
They arrived to Aichi's apartment. They went up the stairs to the third building and Aichi opened the the door with the number 23, "I'm home,"
"Good evening, Miss Shirogane.." Seiko greets.
On the couch is a woman resting, she was wearing an apron and was holding a vacuum cleaner on her right hand, "Oh, you must be Seiko,"
"Was he talking about me a lot at home?"
"No, he's silent even here,"
"Oh."
"Come, let's have dinner,"
"Thank you,"
*
After dinner, Aichi and Seiko's decide to sit down near the couch. Seiko's notices Aichi's phone on the table. Seiko's grabs it.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Checking your phone out!"
She presses the power button and sees that it needs facial recognition to unlock. She places the phone in front of Aichi, in an attempt to unlock it, "What the.." Aichi moves to the side, Seiko's follows up by moving it around to catch up to him.
Aichi attempts to make a weird face so that the phone won't recognize. Seiko sees this and starts laughing. She finally manages to unlock it. She sees the wallpaper.
Aichi's wallpaper is a young Aichi with a brown haired, red eyed girl, "Isn't this.."
"It's the Gendaishi organization's own Miss Secretary,"
"You were childhood friends?"
"Yeah and we were really close,"
"Ohoho, tell me more..."
"Before you, she used to call me Ai-kun, as well..."
"Oh.." Seiko begins to emit a murderous aura again.
"That's why I kind of hesitated with that nickname.."
"Hey, I won't call you that anymore if you don't want to,"
"No no, it brings back memories, "
"..." She looks around and then her eyes widen, "Hey, isn't that a guitar?" She spots an instrument near the corner of the room,
"Yeah," Aichi grabs the instrument. He strums the strings, and it sounds a melodious C-chord, "Wow!"
"Thanks.."
"Can you play a song?"
"I can only play songs but I haven't had any resolve or skill to create my own.."
"Oh I see, how about you make a song about Miss Secretary?"
"Nah."
"C'mon! I want to hear a love song made by Aikun himself!"
"Firstly, you called me Aikun and secondly, why a Love Song?"
"Well, because you two were lovers in the past, right?"
"Of course not! It's been almost a decade since I've seen her! Besides, I already like someone now.."
"..."
"Oof, that came out wrong!"
*
A large crash was heard nearby. Aichi stands up to run into the direction of the sound. He finds his Mom on the ground shaking. He approaches, "Aichi, get away!"
"Huh?"
"Look!"
Aichi glances at his Mom. His eyes widen as he spots a cross symbol on her wrist, "She's..transforming.."
"Get away!"
The shaking gets even more violent as her irises disappear. Her skin begins to get scaly. And she starts growing in size. Seiko turns to look at Aichi who is on the ground and seemed to be hesitating, "There's so much going on in his head right now.."
"Seichan!" A familiar voice sounds on the receivers.
"Konechan?!"
"A Mojidori has appeared,"
"I know that!"
Seiko's wrist begins to glow.
"Konechan, you can control the strength of Tsuraigo, correct?"
"Wait, don't tell me.."
"My Figure, OUT OF HAND, which copies and and regenerates objects that I touch, has copied Tsuraigo,"
The gun appears in her hand,"Konechan! Please raise the pressure to 120 PSI!"
"That's the highest the gun can reach without too much recoil. But it won't be enough!"
"I know, but please, just do it!"
"If you say so,"
The display rises to 120. Seiko grabs a bullet from her pocket and throws it at the ground, and steps on it, cracking the shell,
"What are you doing?" Aichi questions.
"My Figure activates whenever there is chaos nearby, if so, I receive a lot of Simile. I'm a living battery.. so..if I hold on to this cracked bullet, which can now conduct the energy..."
"..."
"it gets supercharged.."
The bullet is swallowed by a bright light, which she loads into the gun. She aims it at the Mojidori and she pulls the trigger.
*
Aichi is sitting on his ankles on the ground, his eyes covered in shadow. Seiko approaches, "Aikun.."
"Thanks Seiko.. I appreciate it,"
Seiko sits down in front of Aichi, "So.. what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know, I don't have anybody to lean on. After my Dad died, me and my mom only had each other. While my dad taught me to enjoy life to the fullest, my Mom reminded me that utility is the greatest resource. So I poured all of my energy to studying chemistry, the only thing I know I can be useful with. But with her gone.."
"..."
"Nobody..loves..me..anymore" Aichi looks down..
"..."
"..."
"He's asleep.. Trauma does make people exhausted.."
She takes Aichi's head and places it on her lap, "Don't worry, Aikun.. I'm a nobody..."
"..."
Seiko notices a piece of paper on Aichi's pocket. She takes it and reads,
"Hello Gendaishi,
The lieutenant-general has appointed you leader of your respective Gendaishi team. Congratulations.
-Miss Secretary
"
"Aichi must've mistaken this as addressed to me, and was planning to hand it over earlier. But the Organization is a government funded military service, they wouldn't just mistakenly send important letters like this.. That means that they are planning to make Aichi the leader? I need to clarify this.."
She places Aichi's head off her lap and stands up to exit the house, heading to a nearby telephone booth.
She enters the booth and grabs the telephone, before she could type a number, she hears a knock.
She looks to the side and sees a hooded figure on the door. It opens the door and a knife sticks out of it's sleeve. It removes its hood to show that it's Taka, "Who are you? Wait a minute.. You're.."
"Seiko Sekininsha, it seems that you were trying to call someone.. Who could it be?"
"You.. know my name?"
"Of course.. I remember you.. but you won't remember me.."
Her asterisk symbol glows and the door of the telephone booth closes.
TO BE CONTINUED..