Chapter 17: Completing the Mission

STAM HQ: The Next Morning

“HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOU FACES HERE!!!!” Blue’s voice screamed through the recorder in Shizune’s hand, “You have been nothing but failures! No mutants being brought in, only Black agent encounters riddled with failure!!!”

Shoutarou winced at the screaming. He hated being yelled at.

Blue sighed aggressively,“Shizune will give you all your orders,” there was a small beep as the recording ended and Shizune put the device away in her pocket.

Her eyes were pale and lifeless, her tone was just the same, “Each team will bring in two mutants of Yellow or higher rank. If these conditions are not met then you will be demoted from your rank as agents and be moved into officer status,” without another word, she left.

“What a drag,” Seiji sighed, “Two yellow mutants will be easy...as long as those Black agents don’t get in the way,”

“It will be fine, I don’t think any of us will get demoted,” Ryuichi grinned.

“Well,” Shoutarou stood from his seat, “Let’s head to school then,”

Tenno Academy

Today at Tenno Academy, like every 2nd Wednesday, was PT day. Half of the school hours were delegated to military physical training. While the boys had already done their sparring and training in the early hours of the day and were now allowed to play basketball until lunch, the girls had just started their sparring on the other side of the field.

“Ahhh! This weather is so nice!! I loooove PT day!” Shoutarou reached his hands high above his head.

“Ugh-” Seiji dropped his arm over Shou’s shoulder while shaking his head, “You know what the only good part about gym day is?”

“Watching the girls side of the field!!” Ryuichi squeezed his head between the two of them as they all stared.

The girls were all standing in a circle on the other side of the field, no doubt preparing for sparring practice.

“Hmmm this is the best school ever,” Ryuichi grinned.

“Whoever decided that short-shorts and tank-tops would be the girls uniform was a genius,” Seiji nodded.

“Are you guys going to stay over there forever or are you going to play the game?!” one of their classmates called.

During a short water break Kenji joined the group and nodded over to Kyou who was sitting alone away from the field, “So what’s up with Kyou?”

Seiji laughed, “What isn’t up with him?”

Ryu nodded, “He’s probably moping over Arisa again.”

Kenji raised an eyebrow, “Arisa?”

Shou grinned, “OHHH you don’t know! Kyou’s been crushing on her for a long time now...”

Hiro rolled his eyes and left the group silently. Kenji briefly caught Hiro’s gaze before continuing, “So why hasn’t he said anything?”

Seiji shook his head, “Where would we find time to date? Don’t you think I’d be dating all of those women down there if I had the time?”

Kenji nodded while Shou laughed, “You couldn’t date ALL of them,”

“Sure I could-”

“Well you couldn’t date Keiko,” Shou stuck out his tongue as Seiji’s face burned red.

“What was that?!” Seiji lunged for Shou but he quickly ran off laughing and telling Seiji to calm down.

Kenji stared at Kyoushirou for a long time, Kuma Arisa….so she’s someone special to you huh?

-----

Kyoushirou wasn’t playing basketball with the others, he didn’t like team sports. Besides, his mind was heavy.

He was watching Arisa as she bounced happily with her sister and Akumako who had just finished sparring. Arisa is the shapeshifter….agent 00….a black mutant. He didn’t know what to do. He felt lost. It seemed like the only thing on his mind was her. The mutant that stirred his heart...the mutant that confused him...the mutant he had orders to capture on sight.

He sighed and ruffled his hair. He couldn’t help but smile at her...she was beautiful with her brown hair….he wondered if maybe there were other shapeshifters….maybe the Arisa was a mutant...but maybe she wasn’t the black agent. Maybe she wasn’t….but he knew it would be too good to be true. Their mannerisms, the way she held herself...not to mention STAM has no other records of a shapeshifter and he had never come across another. He wished he could forget, that he could see her as only a human….he didn’t want to remember. He shuffled his hair and made his way to the locker room.

There was no point in staying in PT anymore, he didn’t need to be there anyway.

Kyoushirou changed back into his uniform- without his jacket of course, and left the locker room.

“Kyoushirou-kun!”

He stopped startled and saw that Arisa was bowing with her arms outstretched handing him a bag. He took it and saw that his jacket was neatly folded inside. He felt a smile pull across his face again, “Thanks Arisa I-”

“You didn’t see anything yesterday did you?” she blurted abruptly. Her face turned bright red as she realized what she had said, “I mean- I uh- you know I fell and I….I….” her face was turning more and more red and before Kyoushirou could say anything she turned and ran into the girls locker room.

He looked in the bag and saw a small note written in her cute, neat handwriting, “Kyoushirou-kun, thank you for your jacket!”

He sighed, I saw everything. I saw you yesterday….I saw you- Kuma Arisa….I saw you.

Sector 13: Residential District

“Don’t be so nervous,” Hiro finally broke the silence between them as they walked through the street, “The officers have nailed this place before.”

Ryu smiled and waved at a woman and her child as they walked by, “I can’t help it that I’m worried. I don’t wanna be demoted to an officer...”

Hiro rolled his eyes, “We’ll be in and out in 5 minutes.”

Ryu rubbed the back of his neck and motioned to the green house just ahead, “That it?”

Hiro nodded, “I’ll take the back,” he took a step back and wrapped around the adjacent house.

Ryu took his steps carefully up to the front door of the house and knocked loudly on the door, “STAM agents open up!”

He listened closely through the door and heard glass shatter and a scream. Without hesitating he slammed his gloved fist into the door and ran into the house. He saw Hiro standing in the backyard, the glass door shattered, “Hiro!”

Hiro snapped around to glare at him, “You idiot!”

Ryu was taken aback, unsure of why Hiro was angry.

“Did you expect 2 mutants to just open the door for a STAM agent?” Hiro tugged on a metal string to show the mutant couple he had captured tied up in the strings.

Ryu laughed nervously, “I knew you’d grab ‘em...”

Hiro groaned, “Get the cage. Let’s get out of here.”

Sector 4: East Train

“This is stupid!” Seiji whispered into his earpiece. He wasn’t in his usual STAM uniform, but in casual clothes and sunglasses to hide his face.

From the far side of the train Shou was leaning against the door, “Shut it I’m sure this will work.”

The train was crowded. This was the most popular train for people leaving both work and school, and this was the busiest hour.

“I’m just saying. How are you gonna contain anything with it so crowded?” Seiji’s eyes were all over the train looking for any sign of a mutant.

“Will ya just trust me?”

The doors opened and a new group of people pushed on and off. This was it, the next stop wasn’t for 6 minutes which was plenty of time. The moment the doors closed Shou reached for his dog tags and pulled out his pistol, “Excuse me everyone!” he shouted, “I’m R2 Container Shoutarou with STAM,” he projected his dogtags so they could all see, “I am doing a routine inspection of passenger to make sure everyone is safe. This gun can only hurt mutants,” he held the gun up to his own head and squeezed the trigger before anyone could even react. The gun fired but Shou’s smiled remained, “See? So if everyone will hold their hands out to me and I will come by and verify that there are no mutants on board this train. Please cooperate,”

The man beside Shou held out his hand immediately, “There better not be any mutants on this train!”

A mother held her daughter close, “We are safe right?”

Shou took her hand and verified that she was indeed not a mutant, “You’re just fine.”

Meanwhile, Seiji was watching the back of the train for anyone who seemed nervous. He too could use his weapon to test out humans, but a knife is still a knife.

As Shou made his way through the train and man in a suit loosened his tie, set down his briefcase, and placed his hands behind his head, “Do not shoot me. I am a mutant, and I will go peacefully.” tears streamed down his face.

Though there was no room on the train people moved aside and screamed at the confession. Shou approached the man and traded his gun for his omega-cuffs.

“NOO!”

A younger man jumped up over the people in the train for Shou. Passengers screamed and climbed over each other to get away.

In that moment Seiji lept from his seat, grabbed the man’s leg and threw him to the ground. After a short struggle with the man Seiji pushed his knee into the man’s lower back and held his arms behind him.

“Nice one partner.” Shou gave him a thumbs up.

Seiji shrugged pulled off his glasses and cuffed the man.

Sector 2: A local bar

“What are we doing here?” Kenji was sitting with his arms crossed at the table, “This is boring! We are supposed to be-”

Kyou shot a glare at him, “Feel free to leave. I can do this without you.”

Kenji groaned.

Kyou was keeping an eye on the two people in the corner of the bar. He had seen them the moment he and Kenji had turned on the street across the park. He had felt it in his gut, something about them. He followed them, and of course Kenji followed him, woefully unaware that Kyou was already on the scent of their mission.

He was about to turn away from the pair when they entered this bar but then he had seen it. The younger one had clearly said the words “back to 27” and he was sure.

They had been sitting in this bar for 13 minutes and Kyou had been reading their lips the entire time. He didn’t want to make a scene in the restaurant and would prefer to make the arrest outside, but Kenji was being restless.

“For fucks sake why did we even leave STAM?” Kenji blurted and Kyou cursed under his breath.

The pair had heard. Their faces were suddenly white and their eyes were glued to the table where their hands had no doubt gone cold.

Kyou got to his feet and took two steps to the table before one jolted up and ran for the door.

Kenji’s spear was suddenly centimeters from the young mutants face. He had thrown it into the wall to prevent the mutant from leaving.

Kyou quickly paralyzed the two mutants and turned to the bar owner, “We apologize for the disturbance.”

The bar owner shook his head furiously, "How dare those things come in here!" he pointed furiously at the mutants, "That you so much for taking care of this. What you agents to do is nothing less than God's work."

Kyou nodded, God's work huh? he looked at the mutants with pity, how long would it be before he had Arisa in his custody?