Files

Masuyo followed Sute to the fifth floor of the building until she stopped in front of one of the doors and knocked on it multiple times.

“They are not here.” the girl gave up after some minutes, “So, they should be at HQ.” and started to make her way down the stairs.

“They?”

“Yes, Oomori-san and Hisoka-kun.”

“They share an apartment?”

“In fact, the one I knocked is Hisoka’s, and the one next to it is Yoko’s. Their apartments are integrated, just like ours.”

“So, we should knock on Yoko’s door, right?”

"No, if we knocked on Hisoka's door, there's no need to knock on Yoko's as well." Sute affirmed as if it was the only possible conclusion.

"Okay..." Masuyo decided not to pry any further and kept following the girl. They were passing through the fourth floor when he opened his mouth again: "Hey, Sute."

"What?"

“Why don’t we just use the elevator?” Masuyo asked as he pointed at the said elevator.

“Hmm...” Sute ignored the elevator and kept going down the stairs, “It's just five floors... besides, I like to walk...”

“That’s also the reason why we came by the longest path?”

“Huh?” the girl stopped and cast her emotionless eyes on Masuyo.

“When you brought me to this building earlier today, we took the longest path.” he explained.

“Oh, that was… that was...” she stared at the ground, looking for an answer, "That was... to appreciate the garden?"

"You're asking me?" Masuyo raised an eyebrow.

"No! It's an affirmation!"

"Geez, what was that?" "Okay... you're ushering me anyway, so I can't complain."

Sute stared at him for another second. Nodding, she returned her attention to the stairs and uttered: “Let’s go.”

They went down the stairs and made their way to the small building on the back of the main one. It seems that Sute took Masuyo's remark into account because this time they went through the shortest path, but it didn't improve much their time since the girl walked with slower and shorter steps than before, delaying their arrival to the HQ. 

As they entered the building, seeing it apparently vacant, a question was raised in Masuyo's mind: “Are you three the only ones here?”

“Yes, our team is responsible for this entire structure. The only ones that come here sometimes are Satou-san, Adda-san, and..." she stopped for a moment and glanced at Masuyo: “K-Kisho...” Sute said with a low voice while returning to walk through the corridor.

“Kisho...” Masuyo repeated, “So... you know him.”

“Yes... he recruited me.”

“Hmm... if he recruited you, aren’t you just a bit…”

“Wait.” Sute stopped abruptly.

“What?” Masuyo stopped behind her.

“Hear.” she whispered while indicating her ears.

Masuyo strained his ears until he was able to hear voices coming from a door nearby. He copied Sute by pressing his ears against it, so he could listen to the conversation:

“...I don’t like Satou. He always wants to take credit for things.”

“He was kinda rude to Masuyo-kun as well. But I’m more worried about what’ll happen if he finds about us.”

“Talking about that…” footfalls could be heard, they came towards the door, “Hello guys! What are you doing here?” Hisoka opened the door, looking at the slightly startled Masuyo and the composed Sute.

“Masuyo wants to see Kisho’s files.” the girl answered directly.

“Oh, I see! There’s no time to be lost, right?” he looked at the boy, “I’ll take you there in a minute! Let me just finish my talk with Yoko-san.”

“Okay.” Sute answered for Masuyo and headed to the entrance hall. Hisoka closed the door and resumed his talk to Yoko, this time, whispering.

“Hmm..." Masuyo followed Sute, "What was that?"

"'That' what?" 

"The two, alone in the room."

"What? Isn't it normal for lovers?"

"Oh, so they are a couple.” 

“Yes, but since no one comes here we’re basically the only ones to know that.”

“I see... so it makes sense what you said early, about their apartments.”

"Uhum, they live together. Don't be surprised if you hear them screaming at each other sometimes."

Masuyo gave a soft laugh, "Okay."

Sute and Masuyo were quietly sitting in front of each other when Hisoka, followed by Yoko, arrived at the entrance hall: “I’m sorry to make you wait, Masuyo!" he looked at the boy, "Let’s go now.”

“I’m leaving him to you Hisoka-kun.” Sute got up and bowed to him, “Please take care of him.”

“You can count on me Sute-chan!”

“And I’ll take care of you!” Yoko talked to the girl, “Let’s go back together. Is that alright?”

After Masuyo observed Yoko and Sute leave the place, he got up to follow Hisoka. They entered the main building of the property and walked to the corridors, “Hmm... looks like fewer people are working here at this time.” the boy noticed while observing the almost empty rooms. 

“Here we are, Just let me… do this!” Hisoka said as he used a card to unlock an elevator, “You can press button four.”

“Okay.” Masuyo stepped into the elevator and pressed the button.

“Masuyo Hirano, seventeen years old.” a robotic voice asserted after he crossed the threshold.

“So there’s a scanner on the door.”

“Hisoka Kubo, twenty-two years old.” the robotic voice was activated again.

Masuyo pressed button four and looked at Hisoka: “Twenty-two?” he tilted his head.

“Haha.” Hisoka laughed awkwardly and scratched his head, “I’m getting old.”

The two remained quiet until getting off of the elevator on the fourth floor, they walked through a deserted corridor, heading to a door at the end of it.

“I’ll let you look at whatever you want.” Hisoka said while unlocking the door, “While you’re at it, I’ll go get something to drink at that vending machine.” with that, he left the door open and jogged to said vending machine.

Masuyo entered the room and, just after a few steps, found a screen with a digital keyboard on it “Hmm.” he observed the display and decided to type Kisho on it.

“Do you want to see all the data on 'Kisho'?” a robotic voice asked. The boy pressed the “yes” and then heard: “Information available now on Utablet 1.”

Masuyo looked to his left, there, an Utablet with an "1" etched on it was waiting for the boy. He detached the device from the wall and tried to pass through the door with it. “Huh?” after crossing the threshold he realized the Utablet wasn't in his hands anymore.

“Oh!" Hisoka's voice echoed, "I forgot to tell you that you can’t leave with one of those Utablets!” he was sitting on a couch, near the vending machine, “Just use the couch inside!”

Masuyo picked the device from the ground and went to the back of the room, there, he laid on a couch and started using it. First, he filtered the “Kisho” to only refer to the person and not to get confused with any other words. A huge file appeared on the screen and he started scrolling it down.

“Kisho Nakai, Age: 26. Family information is unavailable... 2 recruits on unity 7… Information regarding recruits on other unities is unavailable… contract terminated due to early death...Ugh. Masuyo started to read parts of the file while frowning at the Utablet. "What is this bullshit? He isn't dead."

The boy continued to read the file, which had information on Kisho Nakai's previous works for the A.M.A., but nothing that appeared helpful to him. “Oh, shit.” after some time he dropped the device on the ground and held his head “Why is it that everything that can lead me somewhere is unavailable?”

“Hey, are you alright in here?” Hisoka’s voice came from the door, “You took a nap or something?”

“Huh?” Masuyo sat on the couch and rubbed his face.

“You stayed here for hours, was that man’s files that interesting?” Hisoka approached the boy.

“Hours?” Masuyo tilted his head, “What about you? What were you doing all this time?”

“Oh, I spent most of the time looking at some memes. But just now I was talking to Yoko, she wants us to have dinner with her!”

“Wouldn’t you have dinner with her anyway?”

“Only when she’s not mad at me.” the man smiled.

"Hmm... do I really need to go?" 

"Yeah! C'mon, man. We don't have many opportunities like this."

"Well, if you insist that much, I don't mind." Masuyo stood up.

“Get ready and meet us on the first floor.” Hisoka said after dropping Masuyo in his apartment. With some difficulty, the boy took a bath and changed on autopilot, it was weird how everything was kind of similar to his house.

“Hello, Masuyo-kun.” Yoko greeted him as he got to the first floor, “Adda-san will do us the favor of driving to town.”

Masuyo followed Hisoka, Yoko, Sute, and Adda to the weird car that picked him in his house that morning. They all settled on it and Adda drove to the city of Kitoyama. 

“Just give me a call and I’ll come to get you.” Adda said before leaving.

“Okay!” Yoko and Hisoka gave him a thumbs up.

“Thanks, Adda-san.” Sute bowed to him.

“Thanks.” Masuyo spoke last.

“So, is there anywhere you want to it?” Hisoka turned to Masuyo, “You have to say it now or else I’ll choose it myself!”

“After tomorrow we probably won’t be able to come here to hang out often.” Yoko explained, “We’ll have to start Masuyo’s preparation so we can’t know for sure when our next break will be.”

“I don’t mind the place.” Sute looked at Masuyo, "I'll go anywhere Masuyo wants."

"What?" “Hmm... I don't have a preference, you can choose, Hisoka. ” the boy said while glancing at Sute.

“Okay! So we’re going to Mc Daisy! Come with me.” Hisoka ushered the group to the nearest Mc Daisy unity. Mc Daisy was the most popular chain of fast-food restaurants in the city.

The four of them sat on the booth furthest from the door, Masuyo and Sute on one side, Hisoka and Yoko on the other. During most of the time, Hisoka and Yoko were cheerfully talking about trivial things, while Sute gave remarks from time to time. It was one of the rare occasions in which she wasn't wearing a hood.

“I’ll have to spend an entire year with them..." Masuyo watched the other three, "I should try to enjoy this, but..." he couldn't focus on what was in front of him, his mind was absorbed by the ideas of what might’ve happened to his uncle and what the files he read were telling him. "I'll probably have to check them again..."