“I’m disabling all the electronics around us. And…done. We’re all clear.” Juntaro announced as he jumped back into the cellphone.
“Good work. Then let us begin.” Kenjirou said, nodding his head.
“I don’t think it would matter. The way she spoke of him, this “Alma” still knew so much about us. There’s no guarantee that he’s not listening in on us right now.” Takuya muttered as he peeked out through the curtains, scanning the area before closing it again.
The boys all sat down. With all the electronics disabled, there were no sounds save for the reverberation of their voices within the small room. The room was dark, with the only lights coming from the cellphone Juntaro was residing in.
“I, unfortunately, have no control over the outside world. It’s not like I can just send out something and jam our voices. At least not without causing more trouble than it is worth.” He sighed.
“We could’ve just talked via messages.” Takuya retorted.
“No, it would be too risky to leave behind logs of our conversation. Even though we might be listened in on right now, we still must do this.” Kenjirou exclaimed. “Listen, everything that is discussed here must not leave this room. Understood?”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just get this over with. So what is it you want to discuss, Prez?”
“Mitsuhide, have you finished analyzing it?”
“Yep. Although there were only faint traces, I was able to scan the tissues that remained on Ryuuko’s arm. There was definitely someone there as she had described and…good god, I don’t even know where to begin with this.” Juntaro sighed.
“Start from the beginning. Is he human?”
“Hmm…there are traces of human biological signatures within the samples I’ve analyzed but at the same time, there are also traces I’ve never seen before.”
“So what? Is he some sort of alien?” Takuya asked, perplexed.
“No, he’s definitely human. That much I can confirm, but everything else, it’s impossible for me give a conclusive answer due to the limited samples. For example, we’ve been calling him a “him” but there isn’t any clear indication of sexual dimorphism that I can use to fully confirm that.”
“Wait, so “he” is a female? How were you able to tell if they’re human from such little information samples yet you couldn’t determine something as simple as gender?”
“Look, you idiot, gender determination isn’t something as simple as just looking at a small piece of tissue remains.” Juntaro scoffed. “Ryuuko have also mentioned that there was no way to determine their gender visually either.”
“It does not matter! Can we please focus on the task at hand. Mitsuhide, you know the main reason we called for this meeting. Now tell us, is it true?” Kenjirou interjected.
“Y-yes. I’ve cross referenced it multiple times. There’s no mistake, Alma’s signature is exactly the same as the viruses in our bodies.”
The room was quiet as the boys thought over the confirmation of Juntaro’s discovery.
“Ha…I really thought you were just screwing around when you pinged us that. How is it possible? For a single person to cause this much trouble?” Takuya ran his hands through his hair, nearly pulling out the strands. He suddenly found himself snickering. “Hey, senpai, since he…she…, is human, do you think they will feel pain or fear, like the rest of us?”
“I don’t know, but when we do catch that bastard, you can ask’em yourself. I’ll gladly help you, to suffer that son of a bit-“
“Either way,” Kenjirou quickly interrupted. “Our goal is clear now. To find this “Alma”. And to make them pay, for everything they’ve done.”
The atmosphere became heavy, as a sense of bloodlust filled the room.
“But…it won’t bring her back.” Takuya said quietly.
“…I know…”
“Hmph…well then, how are we to set about doing this then? Seeing as how after so long, we’ve only just been able to find this guy, how are we to actually catch them?” Takuya asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? Takatora Ryuuko. She’s the key to all of this.” Juntaro replied simply.
The mention of her name caused Takuya to suddenly flinch. He already had a feeling it was going to come to this, yet it still caught him off guard.
“Oh? What’s wrong, Takuya? Your heart rate just suddenly increased.”
“N-Nothing. And stop being such an intrusive asshole, Senpai.” He stuttered.
“Hahaha! Such a little kid.” Juntaro laughed as Takuya’s face turned bright red. “Anyway, yes. It seems the bastard is attracted to that girl. For whatever reason who knows, but there is no doubt if we have her, we’ll get to them.”
“Are you suggesting, we use her as a trap?”
“No, she’s too valuable for that. A trap would be a fool’s errand and we will risk dragging the rest of the population of Artificial into this nonsense.” Kenjirou interjected. “We’ve already agreed, haven’t we? She said she was given coordinates to that place to meet with Alma in three days and we are to follow along. That’s how we’re going to meet with them.”
“I see…” Takuya sighed of relief.
“Hmm? What’s wrong, Hideyoshi? You’re acting strange.”
“Wha-no, no! I’m…f-fine.” He hastily replied.
“Heh, heh. Casanova over here seems to have taken an interesting on the new girl.” Juntaro snickered.
“SENPAI!” Takuya exclaimed; his face completely flushed.
“What? Again?” Kenjirou said with utter indifference in his voice.
“Hey! Hey! Don’t get the wrong idea. I-i-it’s not anything like that!” He stammered as he tried to explain himself.
“I see. Well, I do understand your need for such…”desires”. But good for you, Hideyoshi.” Kenjirou said as he adjusted his glasses, turning away from Takuya.
“I’m telling you it’s not anything like that! Listen to me, you giant hunk of rock!” Takuya cried out as he nearly leapt out from his seat.
“I’ll leave her to you, then.”
“Huh? What are you-“
“We’re gonna be returning to that hellhole in three days Takuya. And this time we’re to bring her along. Do you really think a young girl like her, who just went through a near death experience, is going to survive if we let her go as is?”
“Senpai, where are you even going with this?”
“Hideyoshi, you’re the most experienced in terms of weaponry and combat skills so it would be best if you could train her. I’ll admit, three day is not much time but at the very least if you can teach her the basics, it will give her a higher chance of survival.” Kenjirou explained.
“I can’t deny that…I’ll do what I can.” Takuya said as he scratched his head. He felt a bit embarrassed hearing it from him, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
“Alright, alri-” As Takuya agreed, he suddenly notice the side of Kenjirou’s mouth slightly curving. The veins on his forehead were popping out, as he looked to be struggling to keep a straight face. “Hey, are you…are you freaking laughing at me?”
“Wha-no! No way.” Kenjirou immediately covered his mouth and turned his face away from him.
“BWAHAHAHAHAHA!” Juntaro suddenly burst out in laughter, causing the big man to do a sudden spit take as he finally lost control. His face turned bright red as he started laughing uncontrollably as well.
“YOU TWO ARE GOD DAMN ASSHOLES! SCREW BOTH OF YOU!” Takuya screamed as he made his way to the door, his face burning with anger and embarrassment.
“Ahem…meeting adjourned then.” Kenjirou carefully adjusted his glasses as he composed himself again and ended their secret meeting.
