Chapter 3 - Chapter 3 - Tsubasa Akiko

"I'm home!"

"Welcome back!"

That was more like it. Ryuusei walked over to Akiko and sat down on the couch next to her.

"Aki, that was dangerous, what were you even doing out at this time on the streets? You were out cold in an alley!"

"Uhhh, well... I don't actually know, tehe! Ouch!"

Ryuusei flicked Akiko's forehead as she tried the classic 'I'm too dumb, so let me off' laugh.

"Oi, that was dangerous, you know? Your life could've been in danger! Who were you there with?"

"Well... the last thing I remember was walking back home right after school. I was alone though, all my friends had extra classes today."

Wait. So she didn't remember anything else? How she got there? Why she was unconscious? Nothing?

The situation at hand was pretty frustrating for Ryuusei, and he expressed this feeling by sinking his face into his left palm.

"What's the actual last thing you remember? This is serious, Aki." Ryuusei swapped into a serious tone to convey the severity of his words.

Seeing this, Akiko let out a sigh, probably realising this wasn't the time for light-hearted jokes. She closed her eyes and was seemingly recalling her actions earlier that day.

"All I remember is really just walking out from the school gate... I don't remember anything after that. But I'm fine, right? So don't worry, Ryuu-nii. I'll be careful from now on!"

What was even going on? How was it even possible that Aki only remembered leaving school? Was this some kind of kidnapping scheme? Memory lapse? Maybe she fell and hit her head? Ryuusei couldn't even begin to narrow down all the possibilities with such little information. There wasn't anything he could do about it, except for employing some kind of stopgap for her safety.

"Aki, I'm going to ask you to have at least one person with you when you walk home from school. You are not walking home alone, you hear me? Effective immediately. Put my number on your speed dial so your friends can call me if anything happens. Do you understand, Aki?"

"Okay... I understand..." Aki mutters dejectedly.

"Cheer up, it's for your own safety, Aki."

At that point, Akiko's cheeks started to turn red and she let out a quick sneeze.

"Achoo!!"

"Oi, your face is reddening, are you having a fever?"

Ryuusei placed his palm on her forehead and furrowed his brows together in worry. Her forehead felt a little too warm. It did make sense since she was basically lying down in a cold alleyway with the strong winds blowing relentlessly. Eventually, Ryuusei sighed as he stood up to look for the fever medicine in the kitchen cabinets.

"Achoo!"

Akiko sneezed again and started to lie down on the sofa, breathing a little heavily.

"Maybe I'm a little under the weather..."

Ryuusei could only let out an exasperated sigh once again as he took the medicine out of its box and poured a glass of water for Akiko. He walked back over to Akiko and placed the glass of water on the coffee table. He then lifted her back up slowly as he offered her the medicine, which she put into her mouth. Ryuusei gave her the glass as well and Akiko took a big gulp to swallow the tablets.

"Okay, I've swallowed them. I think I'll go to sleep now, I'm super tired... Good night Ryuu-nii..."

"Good night Aki."

Ryuusei carried Akiko bridal style as she drifted off into her sleep on the couch and gently lay her down on her bed, which was on the second floor. Luckily for Ryuusei, Akiko was quite light despite her only being younger than him by two years. It was probably a girl thing. Akiko actually had asked Ryuusei on numerous occasions to cook healthy food for her. He guessed that she wanted to maintain her good body health and keep herself in shape, especially since she was a huge glutton for food. Her addiction to definitely didn't help, by the way.

Akiko was probably the most popular girl in , or at least one of the most popular. This was because she was the Girl's Soccer Club's star striker and captain. When she had first joined the club, was pretty much on its usual losing streak, Soccer had never been the school's strong suit. However, after two years, she and a few other new members raised 's position to its current level, contending with the top few schools in the region. Needless to say, it was a astronomical improvement.

Moreover, she was one of the few Rank A Holders at , nicknamed 'Fiery Gunner'. As implied by her moniker, her Core was a red-coloured assault rifle that shot out flaming bullets. Her personality also contributed to the 'Fiery' part, though. Basically, she had a reputation to live up to and felt that she had to be at her best at all times. Of course, Ryuusei was proud of his little sister and supported her in any way possible. This of course included making her healthy meals that tasted delicious.

Just as Ryuusei tucked Akiko under her blanket, his phone vibrated in his pocket again, indicating another call. He switched the lights off as he quietly closed the door. Ryuusei then picked up the phone call.

"Hello? Ryuusei?"

Ah, he recognised this voice. If she were to call, then that meant Ryuusei had a job to do.

"Speaking."

"Password?"

Remembering the password was always a pain. It was a string of letters and numbers that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. To make it worse, it changed very often, and the frequency of changing was random. Overall, it was troublesome, but Ryuusei still had to do it, after all, regulations had to be followed. Ahhh, what was the password again?

"Q499-YKO8-102G-BM77-3209-2PDZ."

Ryuusei said the entire string in a single breath. It was a long breath.

"Acknowledged. Switching to secure line 'Penguin B-27'."

"You seriously called the new channel 'Penguin'? Do you have no sense of embarrassment? Jeez."

"But it had to start with a 'P'! And aren't penguins cute? Don't be such a stick in the mud!"

The woman on the other side of the line started whining.

"Ahem. Anyway, this is Chief Hasagiri Misaka. Special Operations Agent Nightbane, time for your mission briefing. Please acknowledge."

"Acknowledged."

Ryuusei could hear the flipping of paper and the shifting of things on the other side of the line.

"Ah~ Where'd I leave it?"

Ryuusei could only sigh as he put the call on loudspeaker, holding the phone out in front of him to view the screen. As of now, there was just the 'In Call' text on the screen, but soon...

"Finally! Found it! Okay, here~"

Ryuusei's screen changed. It displayed a small map of a place Ryuusei didn't recognise. On it, there was a square portrait depicting the face of a middle-aged man. His brown hair was short and neat. Plastered on his face was an intimidating scowl, with his small eyes focusing on something behind the camera with killing intent. Probably his captor or jailer.

"Kirisaki Aogami. Aged 34. Rank A Mercenary. His Core has gone Helix, but he's still in contact with it somehow. This situation is way too dangerous right now, we've never had a situation like this before. On the map is his current hideout, an abandoned warehouse, from what we gather, he'll move today at 2330 hours. Find him and capture him, eliminate the Helix Core, lethal measures authorised if the situation calls for it."

"And transport?"

"Already waiting outside. Time to destination is 30 minutes. Allotted mission time is 40 minutes. Please acknowledge the mission."

"Agent Nightbane has received the mission as of 2216 hours. Acknowledged."

"Okay, good luck."

"Psh, I don't need luck."

"Yeah, yeah. And Ryuusei?"

"Hmm?"

"Be careful."

"Of course, who do you think I am?"

"An overconfident idiot?"

"Exact- Wait hey! You're supposed to say that I'm amazingly reliable!"

"Haha~ I guess if you have time for jokes, this'll be an easy mission?"

"Jokes aside, how long has Kirisaki been a Mercenary? I just want to know what we're dealing with here."

"About 20 years."

"Ah... wait. That means he started at the age of 14?!"

"Why're you so surprised? You've been our agent since you were 6."

"This is this, that is that. Being part of is completely different from basically going at it independently."

Ryuusei mentally winced at the memories that the conversation brought to the forefront of his mind.

"Which is why I told you to be careful, who knows what a veteran Mercenary can pull on you?"

"Yeah okay. I'll be going now, bye."

"Alright, come back safe, okay? Later~"

Ryuusei hung up and received a digital package containing the mission data, as well as the detailed profile of Kirisaki Aogami. He scrolled through the mission data while he walked into the back of a black van, conveniently located a few minutes down the road from his house, out of plain view.

Ryuusei's phone was a sleek black colour and seemed ordinary, but was far from it. It was plated with an extremely hard metal alloy that Ryuusei couldn't remember the name of. It was a complicated name to remember, alright? It wasn't his fault! Anyway, this was so his phone would survive his missions. Along with a fingerprint scanner embedded in the screen, the front camera was a retina scanner. If anyone other than Ryuusei used the phone, they would be identified. In the case of it being hacked for mission data, it would fry the circuitry. Lastly, the phone had many secure lines installed into it based on the location he was in, but his newly assigned line was called 'Penguin'. Like passwords, secure lines changed every so often, and the changes happened randomly. In all honesty, despite the hassle and trouble, Ryuusei understood that this random aspect made it harder for passwords and secure lines to be found, so he had no arguments about the whole system.

Since his phone was custom-made by the Science Division to survive missions, it probably could survive something that could kill Ryuusei, which was disconcerting to say the least. He didn't like the idea of being outlived by his phone of all things. It could literally drop from the top of a skyscraper and only get a scratch or two, though the screen would crack a little, but that'd be easily replaced. Ryuusei, on the other hand... wouldn't be as lucky.

As Ryuusei closed the door to the van, he looked around, it was the same as usual. In the far right corner was a small desk with a single computer keyboard on it, along with four different screens. Each screen displayed different data, the first had the outline of a male body with many different numbers and statistics everywhere. This was the screen that kept track of Ryuusei's condition. Of course, the numbers at the moment were all displaying '000', this was because he had yet to put on his Operations Suit. The second screen had the exact same map that was sent to Ryuusei's phone. The third had a full profile of the target, Kirisaki Aogami, complete with his mugshot. The final screen was fully blank at this moment, but it was the screen that would display what Ryuusei was seeing during the mission.

Sitting in front of this desk was a young boy with disheveled blonde hair, only a year younger than Ryuusei, wearing a lab-coat and a bulletproof vest outside it. Sure it looked weird, but it was for safety, so Ryuusei didn't judge. His eyes were large and round, with light-blue irises. This pair of eyes was currently staring at the profile of Kirisaki Aogami, seemingly lost in the data. His looks were actually quite feminine and he was the envy of many teenage girls. This boy was Yamamoto Akihiko, one of Ryuusei's close friends in . The very first time Ryuusei met Akihiko, he seriously thought he was a girl, it wasn't until a bit later when they went to the same washroom that Ryuusei realised his mistake.

"Yo, Hiko."

"Ah, Ryuu! I was just looking over the mission data, feel free to change into your Operations Suit."

Akihiko looked back towards the screens and carried on reading. Behind Akihiko's back was a metal footlocker, pushed up into the far left corner of the van. Ryuusei opened it and took out the Operations Suit it contained.

The suit was fully black, with some silver-grey lines on it. The suit was a perfect fit for Ryuusei, which was unsurprising since it was specially tailored by the Science Division of for him. The suit had a bulletproof vest already attached, along with small shoulder pads for body protection. The elbow and knee guards were pretty much just for the pure sake of Ryuusei avoiding the situation of tearing the skin off his joints on the job. There was also a pair of black finger-less gloves for Ryuusei to wear and a pair of black track shoes. Finally, there was a black half-mask that covered only his mouth and nose. Where his nose was, there was a silver line going straight down to his chin in the shape of a tuning fork. Installed inside this was a gas filter and oxygen mask, though the oxygen supply was really small, it would work in a pinch. Just below the cheekbones were small white stripes, one on each side, with a single black stripe passing through the middle of each. These were the cameras for the live feed to Akihiko.

As the van drove to the mission location, Ryuusei changed into his Operations Suit and readied up, holstering a small pistol on his right hip just in case things went sour. He'd never really used this pistol before, but it had been his partner since he was assigned as a Special Operations Agent, seeing him through thick and thin as a spectator on his hip. It literally could only see him through and actually had no action at all, the poor thing. When Ryuusei had put on everything except for his mask, he tapped Akihiko on the shoulder and Akihiko snapped back from his daze. The young blonde began a quick final debrief before Ryuusei embarked on the mission.

"Okay, we're around 10 minutes from the destination right now. I'll tell you the plan. Hopefully, this all goes down as calculated, but in case it doesn't, we have a few backups. I'm sure you've read it in the mission data, but let's go through it together quickly so we're on the same page, Ryuu."

Ryuusei leaned against a wall as Akihiko started to talk, occasionally pointing at places on the map or in Kirisaki's profile. Ryuusei just nodded occasionally and listened carefully, hoping that this mission would play out smoothly.