Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The Prodigy And The Soldier

|| Codename Prometheus ||
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(let’s. make. reality. fictitious.)
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Kazuo whistled a cheerful ragtime tune as he meandered down the military base. His boss wanted a meeting with him. Though to be honest, his boss was more apt to drink chocolate milk rather than tea. Named after the venerable Tea Master, Sen no Rikyu, Rikyu was a curiosity in himself. A child prodigy valued for his brain and schemes and thinking, Rikyu was barely out of diapers yet he was Kazuo’s superior at nine years of age.Kazuo would’ve found the entire thing ridiculous (who himself was fourteen years of age and hopefully liked to think of himself as a responsible student and citizen of Japan). Strange how the world worked, didn’t it? Though Kazuo got involved with far stranger things on his missions. He suspected Rikyu will assign him something stranger soon.

He cleared his throat and knocked on the door to Rikyu’s office.

“Kyu-chan? You call me?”

A white haired male with a piercing blue gaze opened the door. He frowned slightly at Kazuo. Come on now, couldn’t he have some fun? The kid was serious enough as it is; he didn’t need grumpy Papa to scowl at him like that.

“Rikyu is currently have lunch,” Shirou said stiffly. “Couldn’t you come at a better time? It’s just like you to pop up at inconvenient times.”

“I’m sure he could spare a few minutes, “Kazuo grinned.

Shirou sighed and made his way out of the door.

“As Rikyu’s father, he’s in my care. I don’t want anything happening to him. God forbid, he causes enough trouble on his own. He doesn’t need a troublemaker and bad influence like you to corrupt him further.”

“Since when have I been anything but perfectly respectable?” Kazuo quirked a brow at Shirou. “I make sure he brushes his teeth every day. That he has naptime at about the same time as always. 3:00 sharp for thirty minutes, right? And also, I make sure that he is safe from harm. I’m a perfectly respectable bodyguard, aren’t I?

“You certainly have skills,” Shirou said. “Though sometimes I wonder about you. The only thing you care about is money, right?”

“Oh come on, it’ s a favor,” Kazuo said. “Sure, I don’t mind getting paid handsomely for my efforts, but if it’s for Rikyu, I’m willing to put my life on the line for him. But honestly, shouldn’t you let me in by now? I’m sure he will get testy if he doesn’t have his meeting.”

Shirou obliged.

“Thank you,” Kazuo said with a nod before he slipped in and made his way to Rikyu’s desk, who had carefully arranged his fruit snacks of butterflies and conches and another assortment of pretty creatures in a neat line. Kazuo watched as he methodically put one side (the butterflies) into one hand, weighing them, and in the other (the conches) weighed them in his right hand. He didn’t pop them immediately into his mouth, however, even though Kazuo knew Rikyu adored sweets as much as any little kid would. After spending some time weighing the conches and butterflies, Rikyu then placed them on the plastic package they came from, putting them down piece by piece with deft fingers, in their appropriate categorizations.

“Being particular about your food, Kyu-chan?” Kazuo said pleasantly.

Rikyu stopped his measuring of the fruit butterflies and conches, pursing his lips in a thoughtful regard to someone he not viewed as a subordinate, but as a close confidante and friend. Their friendship had been an unusual one, though ever since Rikyu created nanomachines to preserve Kazuo’s life, Kazuo swore his allegiance and debt to the young child who had the genius and innovation to create such a technology that would’ve preserved his life longer. When Kazuo had been younger and stupider, he got into a brutal fight that ended up with him getting stabbed. The incident was covered up and kept hush hush, and only Rikyu and the military knew what was going on behind the scenes, though people often viewed Kazuo as a kind of criminal.

Thinking about that incident would only destroy his good vibes, though. Mission first.

“They’re categorized by weakest to strongest, “Rikyu said in a serious tone. “Weakest being less number of them, while strongest is the most numbers. In the art of mastication, they’re all the same, they’re there to be consumed by a greater predator. Me. I’m on top of the food chain in this environment.”

He gestured to his chocolate milk and then the meal of chicken nuggets. Rikyu picked up a chicken nugget, sampled a bite from the piece, chewing in small meticulous bites (Kazuo counted twenty bites before he managed to swallow and he was sure that Rikyu was delaying to give him a sense of anticipation for his words, because Rikyu usually NEVER said anything that was frivolous or a waste of time).

“I eat my food in a particular order, you see. I eat the proper meals first and save the sweets for last. As much as I would like to have sweets first, I’m learning the art of delaying gratification.”

“That, and you get crazy when you’re hyped up on sugar,” Kazuo said with a grin. “What’s the occasion that Shirou allowed you to have some sugary fruit snacks?”

Rikyu gave Kazuo a meaningful look. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to listen to me ramble on about the Darwinism about fruit snacks. Here, take a look at this.”

Rikyu then handed Kazuo a photograph.

Kazuo whistled while examining a picture. The woman was a real looker, all right, with long purple hair and sharp, piercing violet eyes that could penetrate one’s soul. He was smitten, for sure, though that’s not the reason why he was given a picture of her. Not for any perverted reasons, mind you, though Kazuo did like flirting wiht pretty girls on his missions. No, he was strictly to observe this woman, infiltrate the school, and make friends with her, perhaps. But wow, she had the stunning appeal like a Tokyo model. She had what you would call Torpedo Tits, though of course, that was inappropriate language for the company he was present in.

Kazuo cleared his throat. Rikyu seemed to know what he was thinking of. He didn’t know, he didn’t know why, but sometimes Rikyu had this unerring ability to hone in on Kazuo’s thoughts and guess correclty what he’s thinking without him saying. Was Kazuo that simple-minded, or was Rikyu just that scary? Sure, Kazuo loved beautiful women, there was nothing wrong with that, was there? Or didn’t every man have their vice? His was women. Sometimse he wondered if Rikyu would ever be interested in girls whenever he grew up. On the other hand, Kazuo must preserve his innocence! Though Rikyu probably knew about anatomy and reproduction from books, Kazuo didn’t want to think about it! His little Kyu-chan, reading those things! It’s unthinkable! Maybe Kazuo should give him the talk one of these days?

Yet Rikyu was too precocious for his own good! When Kazuo was nine years old, he was throwing paper airplanes in class and flipping up girl’s skirts for funzies. Yet Rikyu was different. He was what you would call a well-behaved boy, usually. His Kyu-chan, growingup and learning the ways of the world! Ah, there was so much that Kazuo wanted to teach him, but Rikyu accelerated in his learning and experience at an unreasonable rate. While Kazuo himself? He was devolving! He was sure!

“Don’t even think about it,” Rikyu said, as though reading Kazuo’s thoughts.

“Hm?” Kazuo said while he looked up from the picture to the nine-year-old boy that tapped his foot on the ground.

“Strictly observance, only,” Rikyu said in a stern tone. Kazuo chuckled.

“Come on, Kyu-chan, I’m not that depraved I would go touching a woman without her permission. I’m a gentleman, you know. A gentleman.”

Rikyu sighed. Kazuo cleared his throat again. He was being awfully serious, wasn’t he? Frowning so much would only give him wrinkles beyond his years. His hair would be gray and his back would be hunched over. Rikyu was an old man in a nine-year-old’s body. Just as crotchety too, he supposed. In fact, he could imagine Rikyu with a cane waving him off his lawn. The mental disparity was both disturbing and amusing. Rikyu really needed to relax more. But how could Kazuo put the young boy’s mind at ease?”

“Just think for a moment instead of being a moody sac of hormones. This girl cna play an important part in our organization, though we must handle the situation delicately, I must say.”

“You know that I have a finesse for this mission, Kyu-chan.”

Rikyu frowned.

“Could you please stop calling me that? I’m your superior, after all.”

“I know,” Kazuo said with a teasing edge in his voice. “But I really owe a lot to you. Couldn’t I refer to you with more affection than just ‘Captain’?

Rikyu cleared his throat, telling Kazuo to sober up. He suspected Rikyu didn’t mind the expression of affection towards him, though he had to keep up appearances, after all. Though Rikyu was competent at what he did, some people often questioned whether they should be following the orders of a nine year old boy. Well, Kazuo knew different than the others.

“Right,” Kazuo said, doing as Rikyu requested in his gaze. The blond’s expression turned more serious. “But do you think she’s really the one?”

Kazuo’s brow furrowed. There were clear indicators that she might be what they’re looking for. She wasn’t just eye candy, she apparently had brains like Rikyu did. Though Kazuo would’ve joked that Rikyu was awakening to his manhood, Kazuo knew better. Though still, he spent an awfully long time listening in on her. Kazuo wondered if Rikyu felt any sense of unease about stalking and watching over a woman without her knowing. He didn’t particularly like this part, but it was a part of the mission. Kazuo needed to put his personal feelings aside for the time being.

“That’s what we’re going to determine, aren’t we?” Rikyu chided gently, breaking Kazuo out of his train of thought. “You will be observing her school activities and monitor her home activities by moving into an apartment next to hers. Then you will be given a fake student ID to enter the school that she works from.”

“Hm, I don’t like the idea of stalking women, but I guess this is important to the mission,” Kazuo said with a nod. “You should be more sensitive to women, you know? You don’t have any qualms about doing this to the poor girl, do you?”

Rikyu glared at Kazuo. Yikes, when Kyu-chan’s anger roused, people had a bad habit of falling victim to technological failures in the base such as electrical wires shocking them or the AI rebelling against the people tending them by trolling them with memes. “Unlike me, she isn’t disposable.”

Kazuo held up his hands. “I’m sorry, Kyu-chan. Christ. I was just joking!”

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Rikyu sighed again. “You need to take this more seriously.”

“Well, I’ll do as I’m told,” Kazuo said. “But remember, Rikyu…dont’ overwork yourself.”

“I’ll be fine,” Rikyu said in a nod of acknowledgment towards Kazuo’s statement. “Your first mission is a surveillance mission. You will move into an apartment quite near to hers and monitor her daily activities. You will report everything to me, including the most intimate detail. Nothing is sacred or private here. I want to know everything.”

“Are you awakening to hormones?”

“As if. Get moving.”

Kazuo saluted and then walked out the door.

—x—

“Attention!” Tomoyo Aburame said in the classroom, back iron rod straight as her stern expression overlooked the students before them. What a pathetic lot, she thought. They didn’t take their responsibilities seriously enough! How else was she supposed to discipline them into better students, nay, citizens? Their future meant a career in something that made a comfortable living in modern day Japan, where apathy ran strongly but did any of them care? Not one bit! Only Tomoyo cared! She wanted to straighten out these students one by one by shaking them by their perfectly pressed collars and shout insults in their faces. But she had a reputation to keep, and that meant she would let her trusty shinai do the talking instead of her words. Of course, Tomoyo could verbally eviscerate a student if she wanted to, but she held back for their sake. They needed to think for themselves, damn it!

“Please take these pamphlets I’m going to be handing about,” Tomoyo said as she started to hand them out to the students, who whispered while she was in the middle of talking. She slammed the shinai on the desk of one hapless student, glaring at him.

“You there! Did I give you permission to speak? How dare you talk while I’m in the middle of an explanation!”

“Look at that hotshot Tomoyo,” one of the students said, to which Tomoyo reddened. She was seeing red, damn it! But she had to control her anger, or else she would be nothing more than a tyrant! But still, these students made it so hard for her to keep her composure…they purposely pissed her off, did they? Why? She upheld the rules in the school, she made sure that each of them would turn out to be upstanding citizens? Even if she had to smack them a couple of times across the head, that meant they were being rehabilitated into better people. Right? This class of delinquents that got involved in their stupid gang wars and shit.

“Listen, you,” Tomoyo said before someone threw a smelly wad of the sock at her. Did it…did it have MOLD on it? Ugh! How disgusting! “This is unacceptable behavior! Don’t you care about being moral and upright citizens?”

“You listen, Tomoyo the Tyrant,” one of the students said, pointing a finger at her. Various garbage was being tossed in her direction, to which Tomoyo span her shinai around and deflected them all! She would not put up with this!

“Rule number one,” Tomoyo said with a glint in her eye while the students swallowed. Even if they despised her, even if they hated her guts, she would make sure that the rules would be upheld! No matter what! “Throw your damn garbage away! And NOT at me!”

“Why should we do what you say?” one of the girls that tormented Tomoyo said with a sneer. “We all know that you're given the Class President title because no one cared enough to take it. Besides, you don’t have the authority to boss us around. You just want to use your shinai to hit other people don’t you?”

“It’s discipline!” Tomoyo said. “And self-defense! I know that you guys scheme behind my back to make my life as miserable as possible!”

“How do you think that we feel?” One of the students said. “You just go crazy with that shinai and hit students whenever you feel like it. You're not called the Tyrant without a reason, you know?”

In the meantime, a girl with silky brown hair stood up from her seat and put a hand on Tomoyo’s shoulder. “Listen, everyone. Tomoyo is trying her hardest. Why don't’ we try our hardest, too?”

“It’s Kokoro-chan,” one of the boys said. “Why are you friends with her, anyway?”

“Now, now,” Kokoro said in a calming tone to placate the riled up students. “Tomo-chan is my friend. You should be kinder to her, you know? She works so hard to keep this school in line, and you all rally against her… however…”

Kokoro wagged a finger at Tomoyo. “Tomoyo, you should listen to the hearts of the students more. You shouldn't rule through fear and discipline. Sometimes a feminine touch is needed…you know what I mean?”

Tomoyo flushed. “Koko-chan….”

“Now, now,” Kokoro said while putting a hand on her cheek. “Let’s settle down and read our pamphlets in peace. This is really important for our careers, you know? I know it doesn’t seem like it matters right now, but I have confidence that every one of you has a fantastic future ahead of you. Tomoyo wants what’s best for you.”

The boys grumbled and got into their seats. Tomoyo frowned. They were certainly lovestruck by Kokoro-chan, and the girls adored her and wanted to be her. Why couldn’t Tomoyo wield that kind of charisma too?

“All right,” Tomoyo said in a resigned tone. “Just make sure to return the pamphlets to me when you’re finished. Dismissed.”

—x—

Kazuo set up his apartment. He organized everything with military efficiency, with a Spartan room that had the barest of furnishings. He had a pair of binoculars around his neck while peeping through the windows and listened in on Tomoyo’s conversations on her phone and IM messages recorded on her computer. He knew all sorts of intimate things about her, such as the fact that she only eats a yogurt in the morning for breakfast and buys ninety-nine cent ramen cups from the convenience store to survive, along with the fact that she wears practical clothing but would like to window shop among the streets in Tokyo for pretty clothes that she would longingly sigh for to become more feminine. Though Kazuo personally liked her best in her practical clothing rather than the girl dresses in ribbons and frocks and hats. It just seemed t suit her more.

“Kazuo reporting in,” Kauo said while he observed Tomoyo disappeared into her bathroom and heard the sound of the shower being run. “Target is taking a bath. Seems to show no signs of suspicion against being watched. Thus far she seems to be an ordinary high school girl struggling to get by. Are you sure that she’s that important?”

“You better trust my instincts, Kazuo,” Rikyu said, while Kazuo laughed a bit.

“Hey, hey, I’m not doubting you. But I’m sure you don’t have all this fancy tech and whatnot just for me to do glorified peeping tom, are you?”

“You’ll see. Eventually.”

“As much as I like watching pretty girls, isn’t this a little too much? I feel like a huge creep doing this to her.”

“As much as I find invading the privacy of someone very unsavory, she’s an important target and can be integral to our organization; or a weapon against it. Just keep watching and make sure that no one suspicious approaches her or kidnaps her or whatever. Maelstrom will think of a way to approach her. We’re currently working on Fake IDs and paperwork for you to join her school. Eventually. Thinking ahead and planning ahead gets you everywhere in life.”

“I’m kind of getting bored. She isn’t really doing much. Though school seems like a lot of fun. At least I would be out and get in contact with the target, at least.”

“Just remember to observe for now,” Rikyu said sternly. “You’re not supposed to contact her yet. That would put this operation at risk for one. But we believe that she has an item of importance within that apartment, or she might have something that will prove her extraordinary gift. We’ll just have to wait and see. From what we remember, she got exceptional grades all across the board, particularly in math and science.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Kazuo asked, and Rikyu could be heard unwrapping a candy bar on the other side.

“Just a part of the hunch, I suppose,” Rikyu said. “You will shadow her tomorrow and report everything to me.”

“Even if she does things like scratch her ass or farts?”

“Gross, Kazuo.”

“Hey, you know me,” Kazuo said with a grin. “Girls aren’t so mysterious creatures after all.”

“Hmph,” Rikyu said before he munched on something on the other line.

“Hey, did Shirou give you permission to eat that?” Kazuo said, and he could imagine Rikyu grinning on the other side.

“My brain needs the extra glucose,” Rikyu said. “But no worries. I think we’re on the right track. Just be patient and stay tuned for further orders.”

Kazuo nodded. “Right-o. Will be awaiting a reply two hours from now.”

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