Shadow Play (Matsumiya) Part 1/2

[lilly0]

Title: Shadow Play
Pairing/Group: Matsumiya, appearances by all Arashi members, Kitagawa Keiko, Toda Erika, Mizuhara Kiko and a cameo by Ikuta Toma
Rating: PG-13
Beta: the two lovely girls yoru_no_hikaru and smile_arigatou!
Genre: Spy!AU, a little suspense, a little angst, a little comedy, a little romance
Summary: A.R.A.SH.I stands for astringent rational artillery of shadowy intelligence service and is part of a secret delinquent, do-what-we-want side organisation that belongs to intelligence service.
Notes: Written for lovely kitkaos for the arashi_exchange.<3


There is a slight whistling sound in the air, it’s not really loud enough to bother anyone but it’s annoyingly ear-piercing and destroys the sweet melody of the wave of water washing over the beach. The palm trees are calm, their branches hardly moving at all, Nino knows that, but the huge aspen, this little bitch right next to him moves its leaves with every tiny, almost only hinted breeze in the air. And they whistle.

“Shut up,” Nino mumbles when the rustling and whistling continues. It’s September here, on this islands which knows only one freaking season: summer. So, no need to worry about wind or even a little breeze. It’s still so warm that Nino is sleeping outside most of the time, lying in his huge hammock. Sometimes the others join him because it has the size of a tent, at least in Aiba’s eyes it has, but most of the time he prefers to be alone. He scratches his stomach a bit, feeling all warm and fuzzy and comfortable.

Then suddenly, without a warning he feels something wet hovering above him, little water drops dripping down on his warm and sensitive skin and before he can even finish wondering where that came from he finds wet hair touching his stomach. He squeaks in shock. At first he thinks it’s their dog Marshmallow, who wants to play and get on his nerves, but then he can hear Jun’s laugh. Apparently Jun thinks it’s a good idea to simply dry his wet hair on Nino’s shirt. Next, said hair is moved up to his neck and tickles his nose. It seems that Jun has set his goal to get Nino’s clothes completely soaked. Somewhere in the distance Marshmallow barks. Nino wonders if he should be mad for getting his peaceful day at the beach destroyed like this, but then he opens his eyes and sees that Jun looks unusually mischievous and relaxed. Apparently he has just come out of the water. Idiot is always so active. Nino snorts. The hell with it and the fact that his clothes will get all drained, he thinks, and tugs at Jun’s hair. He pulls him down into his hammock like that, both of them laughing now.

When Jun lies down at the other side of the quite roomy hammock as well, Nino shivers. Jun’s body is cold from the water. He wonders how to go back to a more comfortable position but before he can do so, he hears how the door to their beach house gets opened forcefully. “That’s Sho,” Nino analyses without even looking. “No one else opens a door like that.”

Jun chuckles like always when someone dares to tease Sho.

~~~***~~~

A.R.A.SH.I stands for astringent rational artillery of shadowy intelligence service and is part of a secret delinquent, do-what-we-want side organisation that belongs to intelligence service. Someone had to do the dirty work after all. That’s what Sho said when Nino was all new. Later on Jun told him though that Aiba and Ohno merely threw the dice and chose the name like that during a drinking game. To this day Nino still isn’t quite sure who told the truth but he leans more towards Jun’s words. Not only because it’s Jun but because it’s just so ridiculously, idiotically awesome to draw the name for such a serious and dangerous organisation by lot. Nino can highly sympathize with this.

Aiba calls what they do noble. But then he is a little romantic and thinks they are modern Robin Hoods. Sho calls what they do necessary. Ohno doesn’t waste many words on it. It is what it is, he says. In contrast, Jun goes for a longer explanation most of the time. “I don’t believe in black and white.” He explained to Nino when the latter was new. “Or in good and bad. We do what we think is right. But we do it our way.”

‘Our way’, Nino learned, means spying, stealing, seducing and even killing. For a good cause. “As long as the outcome is good, our actions aren’t evil?” Nino frowned when he said that.

“I’m not sure.” Jun patted one of his dog’s head, a thoughtful look in his dark eyes. “I guess that under certain circumstances a good outcome can justify an evil act.”

He probably would have said more but they got distracted by Sho at that time. He had a new mission for them.

~~~***~~~

Today Sho doesn’t have a mission but a complaint. “Why is it that I’m the one who has to cook for you guys?”

Jun sits up a bit. “You volunteered.” The hammock wavers dangerously when he stands up. The cold body is gone, but still, Nino feels a loss all of a sudden.

“I didn’t volunteer,” Sho argues. “It’s just that Satoshi-kun can’t cook to save his life. No one likes Nino’s cooking and we don’t have enough ingredients to satisfy your majestic expectations. And Masaki is-“ he pauses. “Masaki.”

“Exactly-“ Jun intervenes. “That’s when you said: You idiots can’t even do that. I’ll cook instead. Don’t make it sound like we forced it on you. If you want help, you can ask anytime. But do it in a normal way, jeez.”

When Sho opens his mouth to retort something, the door opens again and Kiko peeks outside. She has tied her hair back with a yellow hair clip and is wearing her new swimwear. It has little green leaves and flowers on it, and a little dolphin – and it looks surprisingly good on her (Some women can wear loud colours like that, Ohno once said not without interest). It’s a present from Aiba. He gave it to her proudly with the words because you like bikinis so much. Jun laughed slightly at that and said something like It’s a tankini. Until that day Nino didn’t even known of the existence of a tankini. Actually none of them did including Kiko herself. So, one could say, Jun broadened their horizons a bit. No wonder the others always ask him for fashion advice.

“We can eat later,” Kiko suggests. “I’ll help you. But I want to jump into the water first.”

Sho looks something between annoyed and weirdly pleased (probably because of Kiko’s nice look, Nino thinks with a teasing glance towards Sho) He isn’t too surprised when Sho gives in. “Fine,” Sho says and retreats.

When Jun grabs his towel and tells Nino that he is going to the basement for a little training, Nino wonders if this guy actually knows the meaning of vacation. But then, he shrugs it off – Jun probably doesn’t and no news here – and follows Sho into the house.

Nino finds Sho trying to teach Marshmallow some tricks. “Sit!” he commands. Marshmallow throws himself on the floor, rolling on his back, all four paws stretched away from his body, his tail wiggling. Nino grins, while Sho grunts something incomprehensible.

~~~***~~~

Jun normally leaves most of the trained animals at the basis of their organisation. He only takes his favourites and the very best along to their private place, namely Chantal, the Shar-pei, Neon Genesis, the wild pig that hates Sho, and Olong, the falcon, who has found a weird liking to Aiba and cornflakes.

And then there is Marshmallow.

Marshmallow’s whole character is exactly like the food he was named after. He is soft, cute and squeaky, but has the size of colossus and can’t tell apart a nuclear bomb and a cookie. Jun, Kiko and Aiba are the ones responsible for training the animals, though secretly Nino believes that Aiba is the one choosing the names and Jun and Kiko do the training. These two just know how to handle their animals, but with Marshmallow every training is in vain.

Marshmallow’s first and last mission was one where they only had to deliver a simple package. On a scale from one to ten, it was a two-mission. Green. Marshmallow was there purely in case of a worst case scenario. Nobody could have known that he would be the worst case scenario. At the end of the day Ohno had a knife stuck in his leg, Jun broke a rib and they had to ask for reinforcement.

Jun and Aiba still took the huge bundle of adorableness with them because they didn’t want to give one of their beloved animals away.

~~~***~~~

Nino spends the rest of the afternoon in front of his PC. “Are you making any progress?” he can hear Aiba’s voice from behind.

“Hm-“ Nino klicks his tongue in annoyance. “It should be easier to hack into the military’s security system. It seems that they have a new firewall and an even newer protection system.” When he lets out a sigh, Aiba pulls his chair away from the computer. “Why don’t you take a break?” he suggests. “It’s already pretty late. Night’s already coming up.”

For a moment Nino thinks the other is joking, but as he throws a glance out of the window, he can see that everything is indeed already covered in darkness.

“We are having dinner soon,” Aiba tells him. “Why don’t you go downstairs and get Jun-kun and Satoshi-kun.”

Nino nods slightly, still lost in his thoughts. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registers Aiba’s voice telling him that it was exactly 30 minutes until dinner.



When Nino got hired and was directly transferred to A.R.A.SH.I – just like everyone with a difficult character or a troublesome past – and heard about the secret private base of A.R.A.SH.I being located on an island for the first time, he expected a little cottage with just the most necessary supplies. What he didn’t expect was a nice and beautiful house (although he kind of hoped it would be like that), a beautiful beach area, which was a nice add-on, and a basement of the size of the pentagon.

It’s not as huge as the head quarters of their organisation, of course, but still big enough to need and have directionary signs and warning signs everywhere and also to have Aiba and Nino getting lost once.

The training area is at the left end of the basement, which is probably why Aiba told him to get the other two guys half an hour before dinner. He can already hear Ohno’s voice before he enters the huge area. Before he can say something though, Ohno puts a finger on his lips signaling him to stay silent. Jun is in a separate room, surrounded by shot-proof glass (a security measurement from one time when Jun and Ohno overdid their training and accidentally ruined half of the room). He is currently fighting against a computer projection resembling a bunch of 100kg, muscle-packed security men – Nino finished designing them just two weeks ago and feels proud that the guys are already using them for training.

He joins Ohno at the little microphone through which he is communicating with Jun. At the beginning, right after Nino joined, it felt weird to him to see Ohno and Jun interact, he even thought they were in some kind of relationship or something – until Sho told him that they already knew each other since Jun was only a teenager. Ohno took care of him, apparently, brought him to this organisation, and trained him. Actually, he still does.

It still feels a bit weird sometimes, though, but not too much.

“Don’t slack off, Jun,” Ohno says through the mic. He has this calm voice that reminds Nino of these Zen-mediation records that tend to make him all sleepy. “You almost got them. Stay focused. You can do it.”

Jun throws his knife towards one of the men, hitting his target straight on. In the same motion he turns around swiftly and kicks the only remaining man right into the face. Nino can hear the bones breaking and when Jun shoots the virtual guy, blood spills. Nino almost regrets making this projection so graphic. He overdid it a bit with the amount of blood that spills out of their bodies, he has to admit that much.

Ohno pushes a button on the huge control pad. The surroundings in the training room suddenly disappear, so does the blood and the security men. When the door opens, Jun steps outside. “You are doing excellent already,” Ohno tells him. “Your footwork improved a lot and your senses work better than ever.”

“Not good enough,” Jun takes the towel that Nino hands him and dries the sweat on his neck with it. Nino is almost amazed by the fact that Jun never seems to be too content with his own work. Out of the corner of his eyes he can see how Ohno rolls his eyes. “In this little sequence on the open area they almost got me. I was a little handicapped for a while – Kazu’s projections are really freaking realistic. How do you do it? I feel that they have an effect on me when they hit me or shoot me, even though they can’t actually truly hurt me.”

“The work of a genius,” Nino grins. “You know, I manipulated the gravitation a little and-“ he pauses. “Tell you what, you two stick with doing the physical work. Leave the thinking to me and Sho.” He laughs when Jun throws the towel back, right at Nino’s face.

“We should probably go for dinner,” Ohno interrupts them.

“Is there enough time to take a shower?” Jun asks. “If not, I won’t care and still take one.”

“I think there is still enough time,” Ohno reassures him. “But don’t be too late. Sho is going to be so pissed if his food gets cold.”

“No, he isn’t,” Nino chuckles slightly while he leads the way back. “Kiko is there too and helps him. He never complains when she or Erika is around.”

Jun grins while Ohno pulls his eyebrows up. “What about Keiko-chan?”

“They fight all the time,” Nino explains. “Having her in the kitchen together with him, plus Aiba-chan enjoying the interaction, would be contra-productive.”

“And that’s-“ Ohno ends their talk. “-why you are on the strategy team.”

~~~***~~~

“Did you prepare the corn on the cobs?” Keiko asks Sho when they are sitting together at the huge table in the living room. She is wearing a playboy bunny hair band and a cocktail dress. Always pretty, always overdressed, but still working it.

“No, that was me,” Kiko says.

“Oh-“ Keiko smiles sweetly. “Then it tastes fantastic.”

Jun and Nino exchange a grin. Fascinating how vicious this woman could be. “Let’s train together tomorrow, Kiko,” Jun says, apparently deciding to change subject. A pity, because in Nino’s opinion Sho’s poisonous look is just too funny.

“Hm-“ she nods. “Only if you won’t beat me up.”

“I would never do such a thing,” Jun almost sounds insulted. “But you have some talent. Why not polish it?”

“He is right,” Ohno agrees. “We need you in the fighting team. Right now it’s only Jun and me.”

Sho nods before he turns towards Nino. “How are you progressing with the military security system?”

“Oh, don’t remind me,” Nino sighs. “It should probably not be that difficult, but-“ He wants to add some more information, glad that he can finally talk to someone of his own intra-team about it, but he gets interrupted by Aiba suddenly bursting into the room. He got a phone call ten minutes ago and excused himself from dinner.

“It’s Toma,” he says. Before he can say anything else Marshmallow throws himself at him, demanding some attention. Only when Aiba pets him, he stops the assault. “He wants to talk to you now, Sho.”

Nino sighs inwardly. “So, it means work,” he says and tries to sound as casual as possible. Their little time off was too short.

Sho disappears for an entire hour, so there’s still enough time to eat and wash the dishes. Unfortunately the door to the beach is still open so at one point Marshmallow decides to take a stroll. When Jun and Kiko finally find him, he is covered in dirt. Mud bathing, apparently. Chantal, who is lying next to the door most of the time, her senses awake – always- only grunts when Marshmallow pats back into the house, a huge trace of dirt following him.

Ohno opens his mouth, most likely to start a not too charming rant, but Aiba beats him to it. “It’s okay,” he says swiftly. “I’ll clean him up immediately.”

“Yeah,” Erika takes another spoon from Sho’s perfect strawberry crème. “I’ll help.”

~~~***~~~

“Is that useless excuse of a dog finally washed and sleeping?” Sho asks in annoyance.

“Hey you-“ Jun points at Sho with his perfect new knife, the one that can cut iron as well as any other metal you can think of. A birthday present from Keiko. “-don’t insult Marshmallow!” he says and probably means it.

Aiba reaches out his hand to pull Jun’s arm away. “Let’s get to the topic, shall we?” he asks pleadingly.

Nino hides his grin. He has always had a soft spot for Jun’s very spontaneous angry reactions. Jun doesn’t have a bad temper like Sho, but you don’t want to mess with him. Usually his reactions are very controlled. Just sometimes he will slip – something about that fascinates Nino.

“Fine,” Sho sighs and reveals the new mission. “Toma already sent me all of the information we need, plus our new identities, passwords, clothes, information on the persons whose lives we’ll be taking over for a while and our new target.”

“Well, at least he works fast,” Ohno says approvingly. “Who is our target?”

“Oda Sano.”

“THE Oda Sano?” Keiko asks in surprise. “The head of the military and their intelligence service!? What’s our objective?”

“Kill him,” Sho explains calmly.

“That’s definitely not going to be easy,” Nino analyses, his mind already working on its own. He goes through all the pros and cons and what he has to do to upgrade their security systems, their weapons, break through their enemy’s firewall and-

“How fast can you work your way through their system?” Jun wants to know as if he has read Nino’s thoughts.

“Their defence is crazy,” Nino explains. “Sho, Keiko and I definitely need to work on that together. It might take a while.”

“What about the weapon upgrades and all those other little gimmicks you like so much?” Keiko asks. She sounds friendly all of a sudden and not as teasing as she is when talking to Sho.

“100% finished.” Nino grins. He has added one or two gimmicks to the weapons without telling either Sho or Keiko. Jun and Aiba catch his grin, Jun smiling brightly and Aiba calling out “Awesome! I can’t wait,” and sounding a little bit too excited.

“Good,” Sho says before he frowns. “But if we can’t get through their security in time, this might mean-“ he pauses, eyebrows furrowed in high concentration.

“Yes.” Nino answers without letting him finish his sentence. He knows what Sho wants to say anyway. It’s pretty much what he fears too.

“So-“ Aiba sighs in annoyance. “Could you strategy smartasses fill the rest of us in too?”

“He means that we might have to go on an outdoor mission with the assassin team,” Nino explains.

“Outside?” Jun says, sounding alarmed immediately. “You mean on the killing mission itself?”

“The security system might be too tough to get through,” Sho continues Nino’s explanation. “We might need to do some work on the spot.”

“Awesome,” Ohno mumbles silently and they all know he doesn’t mean it.

“Well, let’s discuss that later. There is still plenty of time,” Sho says diplomatically and angles for some huge folders and a few discs instead. One for each of them. “Here are your new characters. Toma already infiltrated some of us into various existing teams, but most of us take over real people’s lives for a while, that’s why the roles are so specific this time.”

“How did Toma get those people to agree to this? I mean, we are basically taking over their lives for a while,” Aiba asks in surprise.

“Well-“ there is an awkward pause in which Sho looks at the rest of them like he is asking for help. He probably doesn’t want to say that there is very possibly a lot of threatening involved, maybe even blackmailing. Toma knows his business well. “It’s just how it is,” Sho says and Aiba nods, apparently having guessed the truth.

“I expect you to study properly and be ready take over your roles by Monday,” he continues, handing Nino a folder. “From next week on, you are going to be a kindergarten teacher in Sunflower nursery school. The woman Oda is harassing, has her child there.” He pulls out the next two folders. They are a lot thicker than the one Nino received. “Kiko and Keiko, you are in the military’s nuclear research team,” Sho pauses. “I don’t need to tell you to be extra careful, right? It’s pretty dangerous and-“

“Really?” Keiko says and sounds almost a little too sweet. “It’s dangerous? Who would have guessed that…”

Before Sho can retort, Kiko gladly intervenes. “Got it, Sho, we’ll be careful,” she says with a warm smile and Sho returns it immediately, his eyes lighting up a little. He should really smile more often, Nino thinks.

“Masaki will be staying at home this time, we need one person to handle the surveillance cameras and the devices and to check on our safety. And as a back-up for another job if one of us has to retreat.”

Aiba nods. It’s all perfectly planned and everyone has to move according to the plan, like a huge clockwork. Tick, tack. One part of it is that someone stays at the base, for security reasons. This time it’s Aiba’s turn while last time he had a job as a political party member.

“I’ll be working as a nurse. Oda has an affair with one of the female nurses at the health department of their institute,” Sho explains. “Erika is going to be the divorced house wife from the apartment on the other side of the street. She is a secret drug dealer.”

There is a pause all of a sudden and Sho looks at his documents a little too concentrated.

Jun lets out a sigh. “The fact that you are calling me last doesn’t mean anything good does it? Get it over with, Sho, and tell me what kind of shady job I need to do. It’s always either you or me anyways. Apparently we have the most frivolous looks and dangerous faces.”

Sho rubs over his head a bit, looking almost embarrassed. “I would have done it myself, but you are taking over a certain Yuri’s place, he is new and you resemble him and-“

“Come on, say it,” Jun interrupts him, smiling slightly. “Red-light district again? Mafia? Or corrupt police?”

“You work at the Starlet Sparkle Club. Oda’s closest man is a regular there.”

“Gigolo? Seriously red-light district again?”

“You don’t have to,” Ohno tells him, apparently feeling as bad as the rest of them, because the dirty work was always left to Sho or Jun. And sometimes Kiko. They can pull off the shady or dangerous jobs best and they are good looking and confident enough to work as hosts.

It’s true that they don’t have to accept a certain role, but it’s making their work more difficult if they decline.

“Am I ‘available’ for cash?” Jun asks, ignoring Ohno’s objection.

When Sho stays silent, Jun nods. “So I am.”

“Well-“ Sho exchanges a glance with Jun, both of them nodding slightly. It doesn’t happen too often, just sometimes there seems to be a mutual understanding between them – like Sho can read Jun’s mind better than the others can, and the other way round – something none of the others can explain. “You, Satoshi-“ Sho continues. “-are the 45-year old gardener at Oda’s house-“

“How old did you say I am supposed to be!?” Ohno interrupts him immediately.

Erika and Aiba giggle helplessly, while Jun looks down at his glass of whisky, his lips twitching slightly. Nino pats Ohno’s shoulder, not even hiding his grin. “Well, fortunately one of us looks-“ he pauses slightly. “-mature.”

Now even Sho has to laugh.

~~~***~~~

Nino sits down next to Jun who’s just been staring out of the window for a long time. “You alright?” he asks.

“Sure,” Jun smiles a smile that is so fake that Nino almost wishes to scratch it from his face.

They are taking a private flight back to the base. Aiba doesn’t look like it, but he is incredibly good with everything that moves forward, or also backward and is fast – except for cars. He got both his pilot license and submarine license in the blink of an eye. Keiko is assisting him right now, not quite living up to his skills but still good enough.

“I wonder-“ Nino muses. “When I will ever feel comfortable with those two flying us.”

“Oh,” Jun smirks seductively and bends forward a bit. His face is close to Nino’s now. “If we should crash, at least you know you spent your last moments with me.”

Normally Nino would have laughed at something like that but the way Jun says it with this hoarse voice, his eyes darker than usual, his lips slightly parted, it’s just- “You are practising for your role, right?”

“Does it work, or do you want some more demonstrations of my skills?” Jun says softly. It’s rare that someone really gets to Nino with such teasing but right now he is just so damn speechless. Fuck this idiot for being so hot!

Fortunately they are interrupted by Sho shouting from the back of the jet. “Can someone keep Neon Genesis, this annoying pig, away from me!? It’s eating my newspaper.”

Jun grins and leans back again.

“Say, Jun-“ Nino chuckles, remembering that when they got Neon Genesis and Jun trained him the latter was in a huge dispute with Sho for a whole week. “You trained it to hate Sho, didn’t you? Eat his newspapers, pee into his shoes-”

Jun shrugs. “Who knows.”

“Oh-“ Erika’s voice suddenly sounds from a seat behind theirs. She has her hair tied into a knot and fixed on top of her head. It should probably look more ridiculous than it does. “I know, Kiko told me. But more importantly-“ she grins. “I know everything about drugs now. I’m a pro now.”

Nino wonders if he should tell her that this is probably nothing one should brag about but then he dismisses the thought and nods instead.

“Aren’t you guys glad that you don’t have to go through all the stuff for the nuclear research team like Kiko and Keiko? Hell, imagine the amount of work and perfection they have to put into that. Hours of boring studying.”

Jun nods and chuckles. “Yeah, you are right.”

When he smiles it’s a lot less fake this time. Nino feels bad all of a sudden. Why was she able to lighten his mood while he wasn’t?

~~~***~~~

“Good-bye, children!” Nino waves enthusiastically, secretly cursing this job. How could anyone in their right mind do something like that? What kind of job is it even? Watching out for a bunch of loud, noisy, demanding little brats, who had sticky hands most of the time, throw their heads into chocolate cakes, grab food with their hand and can’t stay clean for more than five minutes.

It’s the second week in this job and he has already put it on the top 5 most hated jobs he has done so far. Number 1 is probably the one where he was cleaning toilets in a Moscow subway station.

“Kitaragi-san!” A woman appears all of a sudden, she is out of breath a little. Apparently she ran the last metres. “I’m sorry, I can never make it before 7PM.”

Nino still needs to adjust to that new name. Kitaragi-san. Kitaragi-san. It’s strangely hard to remember, though normally he is good with recalling names and numbers. Seriously, he has to get it together. “Please, don’t worry, Asami-san,” he bows slightly. She is the last mother that comes to pick her child up today. And she is his target. Out of the corner of his eyes he can see how two men are waiting for her at the corner of the street.

Asami, never comes before 7 PM, Oda’s men keep watching her. They call themselves by numbers. 1 and 2. Guy 1 – nickname Rusk – has black short hair, 1.80m, probably 90kg, apparently not that important to Oda. Guy 2 – name unknown – 1.95, looks strong, 120 kg. Driving a seemingly unimpressive Volvo as a camouflage with black windows, Oda is probably inside, keeping a respective distance. Here to intimidate her. Guy 2 is the one from the surveillance video that Kiko and Keiko brought. He is also the man who gets the drugs from Erika. And picked up the nurse for Oda. And he was the guy from Jun’s surveillance last Friday. – Oda’s closest man.

Nino puts up his best smile. “Asami-san,” he croons. “Today we had parent-child picture day. A project we prepared all week. We couldn’t make the photo for little Miko-chan yet. Maybe you want to do it now?”

He is pretty sure that she doesn’t want to, but he has spent the whole day and the previous week making such a fuss about that stupid parent-child photo that every kid was crazy about it, including Miko-chan. She even cried a little today because her mother didn’t make it in time – Nino felt a little bad about that, which in turn made him feel a bit relieved. He hasn’t lost all of his humanity yet.

“Well, why not, I guess, if it doesn’t take too long.”

Nino nods reassuringly, leading her inside and making her pose in front of the huge wallpaper her daughter painted (as part of the picture-day). When he takes the picture an instant photo appears immediately, which he hands to the mother daughter pair. A second one he sticks to the wallpaper, exactly on the mark that Miko placed on it. What they don’t know, though, is that with these two little shots he has got a lot more information than anyone can expect. This new device for sure is good. From now on he will be able to find Asami everywhere on every surveillance camera.

In addition, he got their genetic code too – Miko cut her finger last week.



After they have left, Nino packs his belongings, closes the doors of the nursery school and happily hops into the direction of the dangerous looking guys. He angles for his phone and calls Aiba’s number. “Hello darling~” he chirps.

“Hm. Putting you on hold, but just keep going,” Aiba tells him.

“Of course, I can’t wait to see you, babe!” Nino continues when he passes the guys. He drops his bag all of a sudden. “Shoot!” he mumbles. “Wait a second, babe.”

The two guys exchange a glance before Guy 2 nods and Rusk bows down to help Nino gather his things. His watch has dropped a little under the car and Nino stretches a bit to get it. With skilled fingers he attaches a tracking device to the car – fast and without anyone noticing it. He has done this a million times already and his heart doesn’t even beat faster anymore when he has to secretly attach spying devices. “Thanks!” he says enthusiastically when Rusk hands him his books, and stretches out his hand for a hand shake . Rusk is probably too shocked to refuse, so he just grabs the offered hand. Nino pats Rusk’s back casually, placing another device on him in the motion.

Awesome. Nino grins inwardly. And hopefully the skin-like gloves he is wearing will get this guy’s finger prints.

He bows slightly, grabbing his phone again. “Sorry I let you wait! Ah- don’t be like that, I’ll make it up to you,” he continues while he disappears around the next street corner. He pauses there throwing a little glance back through his glasses. Fortunately the car seems to move away.

~~~***~~~

“Ah, you are back,” Sho says when Nino enters through the secret side-door of their little undercover base. It’s masked as a company for cleaning products.

“You too?”

“Yeah, early shift today. Besides we already knew that Oda wouldn’t be in today. He is there on every Tuesday and Wednesday. Friday it’s always been your nursery school.” He pauses, eyeing Nino curiously. “How did it go?”

Nino smirks. “Very well. I have the photos, her entire body code saved to our systems, plus the genetic code of her child. And the tracking device is fixed on Oda’s car.”

“Awesome.” Sho nods contently right when Erika comes to the room. She has her hair tied back into a long pony tail and tries to get rid of her junkie-make-up. Her rubbing with a washing cloth on her face leaves it weirdly red.

“The tracking device?” Erika asks. When Nino nods, she eyes Aiba curiously. “Does it work, Masaki?”

“Yes,” he calls out excitedly and Erika hugs him from behind, happily.

“Where are they heading?” she wants to know.

Aiba stares at the screen for a while then he looks at them nervously. “Starlight Club.”

“To Jun!?” Nino asks alarmed.

“Oh damn-“ Erika puts the washing cloth aside for a while, her red face looking all serious all of a sudden. “Someone has to warn him!”

“I’m giving him a call,” Sho says immediately.

“Calm your tits, boys and girls,” Ohno mumbles while reading his newspaper. “He knows.”

“How!?” Sho calls out.

“You all know that our Guy 2 was there last Friday and checked the new boy Yuri out, right? Liked what he saw. Of course he did. He booked Jun for today – or rather Jesse as Jun calls himself there. Jun knows since Wednesday, so he did some preparations. Hearing device is there, weapons for emergency, mike, tape and the K.O. spray, in case it’s needed. The tracking device too and everything else he needs.”

“That guy – the second one of Oda’s men – he is huge, he is machine, he is-“ Nino stops here, not wanting to voice it out so clearly. “Why didn’t Jun tell us?” he wants to know.

“Because he knew you guys would freak out,” Ohno explains.

“And you didn’t?” Sho asks piercingly. “I thought you would be worried too!”

The glare Ohno sends Sho is deadly and Nino is glad that it wasn’t directed at him. “Of course, I am. And I did freak out. Do you think I’m happy that I picked him up from street and basically turned him into the fighting machine he is?” he pauses. “But for this here now - Don’t forget that it wasn’t me who sent him to that place.”

Sho grows pale all of a sudden, his eyes glinting in sudden guilt. Nino sighs slightly. That’s not right either, he thinks. It’s not Ohno’s fault but also not Sho’s. Sho is a difficult guy, but he is definitely not heartless enough to feel pleased with these kind of missions that some of them have to do. “That’s not fair, Satoshi-kun,” Nino says calmly. “It’s not Sho-kun’s fault.” He tilts his head thoughtfully for a while. “But Sho-kun is wrong too, it isn’t your fault either.”

“Sorry,” Ohno says after a while. “You are right.”

“Exactly,” Aiba says with sudden authority. “And now shut up and get out of my room, all of you. Jun is on and I need to concentrate. So, please leave!”

They do what Aiba wishes them to do and one part of Nino feels relieved that he isn’t going to hear what’s gonna happen. Aiba is stronger than a lot of them give him credit for, he thinks with a good amount of respect.

~~~***~~~

It’s past midnight and even Keiko and Kiko are already back. Keiko has an exhausted look on her normally so pretty face. Science is her forte and Nino guesses that she needs to cover a little for Kiko who is not in her comfort zone there. She has dyed her hair lighter now, it looks good on her, she looks like a dangerous princess, while Kiko’s is pretty short now – not bad either. She has the face for such a hair style.

“Ah-“ The door to Aiba’s room opens and Aiba stumbles outside. “Finally,” he says. And: “I need a drink.”

“So!?” Nino asks immediately, forcing a bottle of beer into Aiba’s hand. He has already prepared that, well aware that Aiba would be tired, thirsty and hungry. “What happened!?”

“Well, the obvious. But from what I heard from Jun he has all the information, photocopy of the guy’s IDs, name, birthplace, finger prints, address. Jun got him even that far that while approaching his orgasm he spilled the one or other detail about Oda and how frustrating it is to be the second man behind him sometimes. How stupid and brutal this Rusk is. Also, where Oda likes to go to, his favourite place and-“ Aiba pauses. “-the secret code to his laptop. He is such an idiot sometimes, choosing his mother’s name as a password. What a wimp! That’s what he said to Jun. I heard it.”

“Good,” Keiko nods her head a bit. She lights a cigarette now which clashes a little with her princess look. “Bad but good.”

Nino knows exactly what she means. He grabs the cigarette she offers him now and takes a breath from it.

“Jun told me that you should all go to bed or do whatever you want to do. He is probably taking a little longer to come home. Needs to fetch a little thing from the club and see if he is still needed.”

It’s a lie. Nino can see it by the way Aiba’s eyes are wide-opened, he doesn’t twinkle. Jun probably just wants to rest a little, alone.

“Well then-“ Sho says. “I’m going to hack into the computer then.”

CLICK for PART 2