Natsumi had listened to my explanation of everything. Bleed, the Antonov supporters, and Kaide. She stood there, listening to me. As my old childhood friend who was always there for me, I owed her an explanation of my circumstances. She thought I had forgotten about her, but the truth was that I had problems. And I had to attend to those problems. Emi was the only one that could support me. I could never tell the other cadets about what was happening, since I didn't want to start some kind of mass hysteria.
"So that's why you were here… let's go after them!"
Natsumi had told me to go follow Reiko, Daigo, and Kaide to see what they were up to. I didn't want her to get too involved, but she was going to try to help me either way. So I agreed.
"Ok... let's go Natsumi…"
Natsumi and I proceeded to sneakily walk outside the barracks. After we both went outside, I caught a glimpse of someone going into the side of the barracks. I signaled Natsumi that I had seen someone, and she nodded. I walked slowly toward whoever it was and as I got closer, I heard something open. Like the noise of something metal being unscrewed. The noise came from the main building side. Natsumi looked at me with confusion, as she couldn't figure out what the noise was. That's when we heard some people mumbling. It was definitely Reiko, Daigo, and Kaide.
After waiting for the mumbling to stop, I looked over at where the sound was coming from. That's when I saw the opening of a vent duct on the side of the main building. My suspicion was that they had entered the vent and were sneaking into somewhere. As I could no longer hear them, I whispered to Natsumi about our plan.
"Listen, Natsumi. It seems like the three of them went into the vent and are going somewhere. If we want to find out what they're doing, we have to follow them. You should stay here, and I'll follow them…"
Natsumi cut me off before finishing my sentence.
"No, Hiro! I'm going to come with you. We have to help each other, so I won't stay out here and do nothing…"
It seemed like Natsumi didn't want to stay out here and do nothing, but I didn't want to expose her to danger. Natsumi proceeded to walk over to the vent, in an effort to sneak inside. I grabbed Natsumi by her arm in an effort to stop her.
"I can't let you get involved in whatever this is. Let me handle this, Natsumi. I still care about you."
I said as Natsumi turned around. She grabbed my arm and pushed it away from her.
"You realize I'm a War-Knight too, right? It's my duty to investigate any suspicious activity as much as it is yours. Hiro, forget about my safety and concentrate on the mission."
Said Natsumi with a serious expression.
I knew that she wouldn't budge, so I had no choice but to let her come with me. After Natsumi's statement, I proceeded to crouch and climb inside. I had to go first, as something embarrassing might happen if she crawled in front of me. As she followed my lead behind me, I realized that the duct led to one singular path, so we just followed the path. It was dark, but the lighting from the main building would light up our path when we crossed by other vent openings. Natsumi and I stayed quiet, as we couldn't alert Kaide and the others about our presence.
As we walked further and further, we could hear the whispering getting closer. It seemed like we were almost at wherever Reiko, Daigo and Kaide were going. At that moment, the fact that Reiko, an officer, was involved in these acts with her cadets was astonishing and thought-provoking to me. Were they involved with Antonov supporters? Was Kaide the leader of some kind of cadet rebellion, or something involving Daigo and other cadets? Had Reiko infiltrated the Japanese Self-Defense Force and worked as some kind of spy for Russian intelligence?
Natsumi and I had just gotten together again after some time of not interacting with each other, but suddenly we were inside some air ducts in the military base chasing after some people. This was something that I had not expected to happen today. But what we were going to find out after catching up to Reiko, Daigo, and Kaide and finding out about their doings was going to be the most unexpected thing today.…