Interlude Two: Tamari

Monday – 11:00

Tamari finished up her business in the gas station bathroom and walked back to her truck, where her trainee was waiting for their first stalking mission. She drove them to the target's house, which took some time, and they waited for a bit longer until the boy exited his home. It was a good thing that Teresa didn't talk much. Tamari preferred as little pointless chit-chat as possible on missions.

"Look over there," Tamari instructed Teresa, pointing towards the boy. "That is the target which we need to Isekai. How do suppose we proceed to accomplish that?"

Teresa parroted the directions that Tamari told her the day before during their private briefing. "We need to stalk the target and determine the most opportune time to commence the mission. Map out their schedule and the routes they take. Find any repetitive actions that can be used to think of a fool-proof plan."

Tamari nodded in approval. "That's correct, Teresa. Now, what do you say we do a little stalking? Sound fun?"

"Definitely," Teresa responded with a smirk.

Just then, Tamari heard her cell phone go off.

Ring! Ring!

"One second," she told Teresa. Tamari looked at the contact info and saw it was from Terry. He barely called her even though they were pretty close. It must have been important if he bothered calling her, so she answered the phone.

"Hello?"

A few seconds later, Tamari's pace became pale. She aborted the stalking mission and sped back towards the base.

* * *

Monday – 13:00

Tamari pushed the emergency room doors open and rushed to the bed where Tobias was. She had dropped off Teresa at her dormitory on the way since she didn't know how serious the wounds would be. Thankfully, Tobias didn't look that badly hurt. She saw Terry on the side of the room with a bloodied handkerchief; he must have cleaned up the wounds to tidy Tobias up.

"What happened, Terry?"

"It's hard to say," he answered. "Everything was normal until I got an alert that a truck had crashed, and after checking, I saw that the truck belonged to Tobias. I called the emergency unit and drove there as quickly as I could. I can't begin to fathom how this could have happened. I check the trucks daily, and there was nothing wrong with it when I checked it the night before."

"It had to have been something," she stated. "Tobias wouldn't crash unless something or someone caused it to happen."

"That's generally true," Terry agreed. "But nobody is perfect. Perhaps he just made a mistake, or perhaps it was a fluke. There are a bunch of reasons we could make up. But sometimes, the simplest solutions are the correct ones."

Tamari didn't push the issue further. She just stood there in front of Tobias, staring at his face. It looked so calm and peaceful. It took her a few minutes to notice another bed on the other side of the room where Tobias' pupil lay unconscious. She was about to check on him when Terry put a hand on her shoulder.

"Would you mind going to their rooms and getting fresh clothes for them?" he requested. "Casual clothing. Not uniforms." He handed her the keys to their rooms which he must have fished out earlier from their pockets.

"Of course." She stared one last time at Tobias before leaving the room.

* * *

Monday – 13:15

This is my first time in Tobias' room, Tamari noted nervously. She had waited outside before, but she had never actually set foot inside. It felt strange to do so when he wasn't there as well. Like it was an invasion of privacy.

She looked around and located the cabinet. She quickly found some casual clothing and turned to leave. However, upon doing so, she got a good look at the wall on the side of the room. A bunch of memorabilia hung from the wall, neatly ordered in straight rows and columns.

Tamari's eyes darted from one item to the next, determining if she could recognize anything of importance. However, it seemed random. At the top left was a vial of pills. In between the middle and the end was a toy tractor. There was also a whistle, a disposable phone, a remote control, a toy cat, and countless other things. She was just about to leave when one particular item caught her attention—a keychain stroller.

She recognized that model. It looked just like the one that Tobias made use of shortly after she joined TRUCK-KUN. She remembered it like it was yesterday.

* * *

Twenty Years Ago

"Tamari, bring the trays here!"

Tamari had been waiting in the cafeteria line for food while her mentor, getting on in years, had chosen seats for them. She looked in the voice's direction and found the source in the back corner of the room.

"On my way, Terry!" Before she got there, she slid some of her eggs over to his plate. Tamari didn't like overeating, but Terry probably didn't mind, considering he was already overweight. She felt a little weird having a male mentor, but there were no available females with a high enough rank to mentor her. Because of this, they assigned her to the oldest male trainer to minimize the potential problems. Luckily for her, the most senior trainer happened to be the top T-rank agent.

Terry grunted when he saw his enlarged portion. "It's almost like you want me to get fat," he joked.

Tamari was in the middle of an apology when a stranger suddenly appeared and sat at their table. He was good-looking, but not someone that she would consider "hot" by any stretch of the imagination. He wore a freshly ironed R-rank uniform and an infectious goofy smile. Oddly enough, he had brought with him a black stroller.

"Hey, Terry," the stranger said. "She's your new rookie?"

"Yep," Terry confirmed. "Meet Tamari. Tamari, meet Tobias. He was my pupil a few years ago and is well on his way to reaching the top of R-rank."

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," she said, holding out her hand.

Tobias took her hand and gave it a firm shake. "Likewise. You are lucky to have Terry as a mentor. He is the best mentor I had here. Granted, he was the only mentor I had here, so take that how you will."

Terry laughed incredulously. "Seriously, Tobias, if anybody here is lucky, it's you. I remember all of those missions in which you only succeeded due to fortuitous circumstances."

Tobias smiled back towards him. "Not sure how you can talk about others being lucky when you had the stroke of fortune to be assigned a female pupil. I am sure she is easier on your old eyes than the usual male trainee."

"Ahem," Tamari interrupted. "I am sitting right here, you know. And I have a name."

The man Tobias turned toward her and face palmed exaggeratedly. "Of course. Forgive me. I forgot you were there.... Tomorrow? Wait, one sec. Ummm. Tammy. Yeah, that was it. Tammy."

Tamari was about to correct him indignantly, but Terry raised his hand in her to hold her off. "I apologize, Tamari. Please excuse Tobias. That's just how he is. You will get used to him.

"So Tobias," he continued. "What's with the stroller? Is that a prop for your new mission?"

"That's correct," Tobias nodded enthusiastically. "I made a bet with old Trent that I could utilize a stroller to accomplish a mission. I need another person to help me, though. I was going to ask you, but your new pupil would be perfect. Do you mind if I borrow Tammy?"

"That's fine with me," Terry replied. However, you should ask Tamari if she is interested."

Tobias turned towards her. "So, would you be interested in joining my mission to use a stroller to Isekai a target?"

Intrigued by the offer, Tamari agreed. "Sure, Tobias."

"Please," he said. "Call me Toby."

* * *

Monday – 11:30

Tamari's phone started ringing, snapping her back to reality. She saw that it was Terry and answered.

"Yes, Terry?... Of course, I am on the way back now.... No, I was not, stop fantasizing about Tobias and I being an item. It's gross." With that, she hung up the phone and ran back towards the emergency room, bringing the fresh clothes with her. Incidentally, there was a slight skip in her strides during the return trip.

After all, it was the first time that she got to enter Tobias' room.