v1c2 part1 (2/2)

“You see, Munakata-kun,” Kounomura kept chatting happily, “from the first time I saw you, I became your captive. And when I did, I had this thought: I, too want to try and become a king like you.”

Those words floored everyone present. This man, Kounomura Zenichi, actually considered being a “king” to be a tangible, realistically reachable status. Like a child dreaming of opening a shop that would sell flowers, cakes and future.

“The difficult part is that to become a king you’ve got to be chosen by the thing called the Dresden Slate apparently, right?”

“Where did you learn of that name?”

Munakata’s tone was cold, but Kounomura only grinned, “I just did a little research. It’s not like that thing is an absolute secret, right? So it’s pretty easy to find out about it if you really want to. I also investigated a bit on my own about the Dresden Slate’s special qualities. Using several investigative agencies, that is,” he said boldly and like it was nothing.

Before she knew it, Awas.h.i.+ma was gripping the edge of a table. She had a bad feeling about this. 'This man might be the type of an enemy we’ve never faced before.’

Amidst the growing disquietude hanging in the air, Kounomura went on, with his eyes still sparkling like those of a boy, “Sadly, I wasn’t able to find out the criteria based on which one is chosen as a king. So I thought: if I take over your duties, replace your organization with my own, replace you in everything, the impartial Dresden Slate just might choose me…” Terrifying innocence with not a shred of malice. “…as the new Blue King in your place.”

“Screw you!” somebody cried out in a stifled voice, expressing the honest opinion shared by all the Scepter 4 members currently gathered in the room.

But they also knew, sensed the barely discernible trace of fear tinging that voice. They were losing the mental battle - losing it to the strange aura, showing the signs of being monstrous, that this stubby unattractive 50+ man exuded.

“…” Among all of them, only Munakata Reis.h.i.+ was completely unfazed, being his usual self.

Dropping his shoulders, he smiled with a wry smile. “I would like to apologize for having to crush the hopes of such a wiser and more life-experienced senior as yourself, but that is impossible.”

“Why is that?” Kounomura appeared to be genuinely wondering. “You have been chosen by the Dresden Slate and you’re taking that as the baseline, but I’m different. Even if right now I’m not a king, I know that eventually I can become one.” He was grinning broadly. “Not once in my life have I failed to accomplish what I wished for from the bottom of my heart.”

At that moment Enomoto reported to Awas.h.i.+ma in a whisper, “I have located the source!” and, surprised himself, immediately elaborated, “Cairo…? It’s Cairo, in Egypt!”

Awas.h.i.+ma gave a small tongue click. She was hoping to find out the place and dispatch some of the members there to detain this unexpected personage. But the place he was calling from was completely outside of her expectations, throwing a wrench in her plans.

Meanwhile, Munakata, who had to hear this exchange, without the slightest change in his countenance, continued the conversation, “I am saying that it is impossible for you because it is the question of ability. I am sorry to say, but you cannot replace me. Would you like to try and target the other kings, perhaps?”

Upon a closer consideration, that suggestion was quite outrageous, in and of itself, all the more since it came from one of the seven kings chosen by the Slate.

But…

“No,” Kounomura shook his head immediately. “It’s you I’m fond of.”

Munakata smiled wryly and let out a sigh.

“In that case…” he started, but Kounomura was faster, “Alright, I’ve decided. I’ll make you say uncle in the not-so-distant future.”

“Hoo,” Munakata intoned, highly interested.

Kounomura clapped his hands together, grinning widely, “You will say to me, ”I acknowledge my defeat, Kounomura-san, and beg your forgiveness”. And when you do, the Slate will abandon you and choose me, I feel.“

Munakata looked momentarily stunned at that.

It wasn’t clear, however, what amazed him: Kounomura’s out-of-line proclamation or his bottomless childishness to declare such a thing on the other party without even realizing that it was a challenge.

”Very well. I shall entertain you. However…” Munakata’s eyes behind the gla.s.ses glinted. “I shall also make sure that you are punished for this act. Without fail.”

“Sounds good to me!” Kounomura’s whole face lit up in a grin. “It won’t be fun otherwise. Alright then, in place of war declaration, how about I show you this?”

Lips lifting up in a grin again, of a slightly different kind than before this time, Kounomura snapped his fingers.

In that instant, the video-feed was interrupted, and pictures started flas.h.i.+ng, one approximately every 3 seconds. All of them were candid shots of the Scepter 4 members.

Benzai, yawning from fatigue en route to a crime scene. Kamo, in his uniform and watery eyed from looking at his child’s photo. Doumyouji, buying sweets and snacking on them when he was supposed to be on the clock, with cream left on his cheeks. Enomoto, in civilian clothes, choosing an obscene magazine with an impossibly serious face in a second hand bookstore. Awas.h.i.+ma performing a daring roundhouse kick upon apprehending an escaping suspect, except she was off duty at the time, so her skirt rode up very high, exposing her blue underwear for all to see.

“Wh-What is this?!” Awas.h.i.+ma, beet red from embarra.s.sment, shrieked.

“Do something about it, quick!” The Scepter 4 troops were stricken with panic.

Hidaka chasing a big breasted girl on the sidewalk with his eyes while riding the official vehicle, then taking a picture of her secretly and sighing in grief.

“Fufu,” Kounomura, now voice-only, spoke up from behind the pictures. “What delightful comrades you have. Well then, see you later.”

The slideshow continued, but the contact with Kounomura was apparently cut off.

Munakata smiled. “What a strange person.” Clapping his hands together once, he added mirthfully, “—Well, let us see what he has got, shall we?”

Then, he turned on his heels and walked out of the data processing office which was still immersed in panic. Nothing about his att.i.tude differed from what was ordinary for him.

†

A few days later Hidaka Akira called Fus.h.i.+mi Saruhiko, who was currently in America. The sound coming through his PDA’s speaker was flawlessly clear so the business Hidaka had called Fus.h.i.+mi about, namely doc.u.ments check, was wrapped up in no time.

“Fus.h.i.+mi-san,” Hidaka tried to restart the conversation. “There is something I’d like to report…” With this, he gave Fus.h.i.+mi a summary of what had happened the other day.

Fus.h.i.+mi didn’t interrupt, but once Hidaka was finished, he said curtly, “I already know the gist of it.”

'Guess I should’ve known,’ Hidaka thought.

Originally, Fus.h.i.+mi was part of the intelligence division. So even if he was on a business trip, it was only to be expected that he had already been aware of the incident big enough to cause an uproar in Scepter 4.

'Does this mean he gets in touch with Lieutenant Awas.h.i.+ma at fixed intervals? Come to think of it…’ Hidaka suddenly wondered, “Why is he in America in the first place?”

Just then, Fus.h.i.+mi, who was keeping silent, abruptly spoke up. “There is something I don’t get from the data alone though. So I want your opinion.”

“Ah, yes, of course!”

Fus.h.i.+mi proceeded to ask him a few relevant questions that hit their mark precisely. While providing his honest replies, in his heart, Hidaka felt admiration for him. 'This person really is very smart.’

When Munakata had promoted Fus.h.i.+mi to his current position, there were quite a few who felt opposed to the decision on the grounds that Fus.h.i.+mi was too young. But Fus.h.i.+mi made everybody acknowledge his right for the position by displaying how sharp and skilled he was. He was still a minor. But presently he was Scepter 4’s third-in-command.

'It’s a fact that very young people held top positions in turbulent times like the Warring States period or the closing days of Edo era…’

But in this case, this kind of personnel appointment was possible probably precisely because Scepter 4 under Munakata’s control was still a young organization, itself.

Besides, Fus.h.i.+mi wasn’t just your ordinary boy. He was a convert that came from another clan. To Hidaka, both Munakata, who so nonchalantly appointed such a guy to a responsible post, and Fus.h.i.+mi himself, who, despite generally showing his displeasure without holding back, performed one difficult task after another, were equally incredible.

Also, it needed to be mentioned that officer cla.s.s members like Akiyama and Benzai accepting the situation as a matter of course played a big role.

The two were former members of the National Defense force, and they would never sell short someone just because he was younger than them.

Skills and the order of the organization was what mattered to them.

That was why the att.i.tude of Akiyama and Benzai, among others, mattered a great deal, influencing how Scepter 4 in general and the Special Ops squad in particular came to regard Fus.h.i.+mi.

“Hey,” Fus.h.i.+mi called out to Hidaka from the other end of the line after a pause.

“Yes?”

“Lieutenant Awas.h.i.+ma’s underwear.”

“Huh?”

“And also the dirty mag Enomoto was choosing.”

“Eh?” Hidaka was confused by these unexpected utterances.

Fus.h.i.+mi, perhaps feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the subject, sounded especially curt, “Did you see the two things I just mentioned clearly?”

'What is he even saying?’ was Hidaka’s first frank reaction. But then he changed his mind. After all, it was very smart Fus.h.i.+mi Saruhiko who was asking him that. Which meant it was important, no doubt.

“Umm…” He pulled at the thread of his memories, unraveling them. “Yes, I saw both of those things clearly,” he affirmed decisively, wondering inside what he was even saying.

“—I see,” Fus.h.i.+mi replied.

“Um, Fus.h.i.+mi-san…?” Hidaka tried, wanting to know already the purpose of all these questions.

Fus.h.i.+mi chuckled. “You don’t get it? Among all those peeping pics of the Scepter 4 members, only Lieutenant Awas.h.i.+ma and Enomoto’s were taken when they were off-duty, right?”

“Ah!” Hidaka made a noise of recognition.

“When we’re on the clock, it’s possible to set up a stakeout near the site of an incident by arriving before us and then snap peeping shots of us using a telephoto lens. But Lieutenant Awas.h.i.+ma and Enomoto’s were off-duty shots, like I said. To boot, the shots had decent enough definition for the juicy parts to be perfectly distinguishable as if they were directed. Which means we’re dealing with one of the two possibilities,” Fus.h.i.+mi proceeded to explain in a well-reasoned manner. “The first possibility is they’re taking pics of us with a telephoto lens and stuff all the time, regardless of if we’re in or out of the uniform. But this isn’t very likely. After all, this implies that they have someone tailing each of us and snapping pics; finding qualified enough personnel in such numbers is hard, and it’s also easy to spot and expose them. Neither Lieutenant nor Enomoto are nearly dense enough not to realize that they’re being followed around the clock and taken pictures of.”

He paused for a second before moving onto his conclusion. “The above leaves only the second possibility, namely remote photographing via spy cameras.”

“I see!” Hidaka smacked his knee in sudden realization.

Fus.h.i.+mi continued, “Hidaka, a.n.a.lyze all the pics, determine the shooting angle and the circ.u.mstances of each shot, then go the places where they had been taken at and check the area thoroughly.”

“R-Right!”

“Maybe you can still find some small leftover clues there.” He let a cynical chuckle slip. “Oh well, that dude seems like a smart guy, so the chances are pretty low. After that, well, just try doing what I suggested if you can, I guess.”

“I will definitely do it!”

That earned Hidaka another cold chuckle.

“—Yeah, do your best,” was all Fus.h.i.+mi said before hanging up.

Hidaka clenched his fist and muttered, “I need to inform the Captain asap.”

He sprang up to his feet excitedly.

†

But, unfortunately for Hidaka, at about the same time Awas.h.i.+ma was in Munakata’s office reporting her findings on what Hidaka was only going to investigate.

“Hm, I see. As expected, no clue to allow us to close in on that man was left.”

“I’m afraid so,” Awas.h.i.+ma confirmed, standing before Munakata and operating her tablet. “The total number of images sent is 18. All of them are pictures of the Special Ops squad. To be precise, among them there are 3 pictures of me, Doumyouji, Enomoto each, 2 of Hidaka, Gotou and Fuse, and 1 of Benzai, Kamo and Akiyama.”

“What a pity. There is none of myself, apparently.”

Munakata leaned his elbows on the table and elegantly rested his chin on his laced fingers.

“Awas.h.i.+ma-kun. I would like to hear your opinion on this matter: do you sense any arbitrary significance in the varying number of pictures for the troops?”

Awas.h.i.+ma’s finger froze in the middle of flicking the tablet’s screen as she took her time to think. After a pause, she shook her head and replied flatly, “No, sir. I think that, perhaps, it was determined simply by how many pictures of each member worth sending those people were able to take.”

Munakata smiled. “Yes, that is right. I think so, too. In other words, some people had given them many more opportunities for taking funny pictures of themselves then the others, it would seem.”

Awas.h.i.+ma flushed a little.

The total of 3 such pictures of her were taken. It was the same number as for the most extreme oddb.a.l.l.s even among the Special Ops, Doumyouji and Enomoto.

'Do I have that many c.h.i.n.ks in my armor…?’ she asked herself bitterly even as she resumed her report.

“By the filming location, we have 14 outdoor shots and 4 indoors ones. The outdoor locations are places like roads and parks. As to the indoor locations, 3 pictures show the HQ premises and 1 the interior of a second hand bookstore.”

“A second hand bookstore… that would be where Enomoto-kun was selecting a magazine, if I am not mistaken. I would certainly like to discuss that sort of hobby with him sometime.”

“As I was saying,” Awas.h.i.+ma cut Munakata off forcibly, ignoring his remark with all her might, “there are only 2 pictures of the members in civilian clothes - of myself and Enomoto,” Awas.h.i.+ma said by way of a conclusion. “Also, about the circ.u.mstances of the shots that you specifically indicated, Captain…”

Munakata’s eyes behind the gla.s.ses glinted.

“—What did you find out?”

It looked like this was the part Munakata was waiting for.

Awas.h.i.+ma cleared her throat and, following his suit and hardening her her expression, reported, “4 pictures were taken via manned utilization of an ultra telephoto lens. I have confirmed that with the exception of those 4, all the other shots were made via unattended cameras.”

“You are certain of it, I presume?”

“Yes, sir. These are the official results of the technical research inst.i.tute’s scientific expert appraisal. Would you like to take a look at the list of camera models used for each picture and the other details pertaining to the circ.u.mstances they were taken in, sir?”

Munakata shook his head. “No, that is not necessary. Make the list a shared file later and leave it for me, that would suffice. What about the unattended cameras?”

“As you have surmised, sir, for most part they were the small type used for surveillance and spy recording, also called camouflage cameras.”

“—So we do have security camera footage among those pictures.”

“Yes, sir.” Awas.h.i.+ma nodded deeply. “The picture of Enomoto at the second hand bookstore is precisely that. It appears that the bookstore suffered damage from rare books being shoplifted so they installed high definition surveillance cameras there. Naturally, the footage from them is saved to the built-in hard disk.”

Munakata slowly closed his eyes and took a breath. “Which got hacked, I a.s.sume?”

“Correct, sir,” Awas.h.i.+ma confirmed again. “Pictures taken with a manned telephoto lens, footage recorded by concealed camouflage cameras in the important areas of the city and footage obtained through hacking of security cameras. All in all, they have employed at least 3 distinctly different ways to take those photos.”

Munakata smiled thinly and wryly. “Those pictures are, indeed, embarra.s.sing to us, but at the same time the very fact of their existence does not make much sense. Arranging for such a meticulous setup and investing so much time and efforts just to take a few peeping pictures is ridiculous. I simply fail to get a concrete grasp on our opponent’s real intentions.”

“…”

Munakata got up unhurriedly and went to stand by the window in silence.

Awas.h.i.+ma flicked her tablet again, “Ah, one more thing, sir. We apparently arrived after all the camouflage cameras had been retrieved. Not a trace of them remained at the a.s.sumed filming sites.”

“Hm.”

Munakata had probably expected that much. Not making a move to express his opinion, he stared out the window at the scenery outside.

“Also,” Awas.h.i.+ma tried to be as concise as possible, “at present, no evidence of secret filming has been found in the headquarters , but, to be on the safe side, we are conducting a search for camouflaged cameras and taking preventive measures against any suspicious person without exception.”

“…”

Suddenly, Munakata turned to her and opened his mouth as if wanting to give some orders.

“What is it, sir?” Awas.h.i.+ma asked in puzzlement.

“Nothing.” Munakata frowned. “—It is just that something feels slightly off to me…”

Touching a hand to his forehead, he pondered for a short while, but… “No, must be my imagination. Awas.h.i.+ma-kun. Those countermeasures are correct. Please continue, I am counting on you.” He smiled pleasantly.

“Yes, sir.” Awas.h.i.+ma bowed to him and left the office.

Once her back disappeared behind the door, Munakata turned his attention back to the view outside the window.

“—So this is another one of your messages, huh, Kounomura-san,” he murmured.

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