Operation Catch the Stalker! (Part 2)

Akihiro Tani is now alone, calmly postured in a center chair of the long rectangular desk in the heart of the library. To an onlooker, he sticks out like a beam of light shining on an island amongst a dark ocean. Vibing out to his favorite tunes or listening to a podcast through the two wireless headphones planted in his ears, he’s easily the lowest hanging fruit out of the crop of students scattered about the large room.

Surrounded by bookshelves and enclosed computer desktops, anyone could be watching him from a hidden spot at any given time. As someone currently being stalked, the thought of this should rattle him, but our resident high schooler is confident that being exposed out in the open is the only way to catch the perp.

“Emilia, do you copy? Over.” he asks in a hushed voice.

[“I copy.”] Emilia replies, her voice coming through the bluetooth earbuds he's wearing.

“I need you to say ‘over’ when you reply, otherwise I’ll never know if what you’re saying is actually over. Over.”

[“Uguuh…”]

“We went over the rules, Emilia. Over.”

[“Over…”]

“Hmm?”

[“Over over…”]

“That’s more like it. So then, any suspicious activity on your end? Over.”

Emilia is currently creeping in the nook of an L shaped bookshelf, her green eyed glare locked on Tani’s surroundings through a gap in the books on one of the lower levels of the shelf. If anyone suspicious were to come into the library through the main entrance, Emilia would be able to watch that particular person walk throughout half the library before her vision becomes obstructed.

If anyone is so much as making their way towards Tani, she’ll speak into her phone to let him know. As of right now, the coast is clear and she hasn’t noticed anyone’s eyes looking anywhere towards the center of the library.

[“Nothing suspicious over here. Over.”]

Tani glances in her direction and is happy that he can’t see her hidden position, he’s confident that if anyone sneaks up on him from that direction, they’d be spotted. His professional looking glance shifts towards the little cubicles that make their way in rows of two placed on the wall to the entrance of every other shelf’s passageway.

Charl is in one of these cubicles stationed towards the back of the room, this particular cubicle is set at such an angle that a simple look over the top would allow him to see inside the next 4 cubicles closest to the rectangular desk where Tani is seated. If someone were in there acting suspicious, Charl could simply talk into the receiver on his phone that is also connected to Tani’s bluetooth earbuds. A warning and location would be all that Tani needs to pinpoint the stalker.

“Charl, has anyone entered or exited a computer bay since you reached your position? Out.”

[“There still hasn’t been any movement over here. And you didn’t say over. Over.”]

“Your code word for our end of transmission is ‘out’. Out.”

Tani’s agitated voice is piercing enough that Charl thinks he could hear it outside of the phone pressed against his ear.

[“Why that word?”]

“Because Anita and I will be able to understand which position to look towards by your code word, if there’s multiple pieces of information coming our way we’ll be able to decipher it better by differentiating the end of a transmission. Out.”

[“Sounds complicated, the difference in Emilia’s and my voice should be pretty easy to notice considering our gender difference.”]

“And??”

[“Out.”]

“Good. You have proven to me that you French are better soldiers than the idiots of history give you credit for. Out.”

[“On that topic, you do know that ‘over and out’ is a term used completely differently than what you’re doing? Out.”]

“All that matters is how I use it right now. Just watch my back and trust that this is the easiest way for all of us. Out.”

The aforementioned Anita is standing at the top of an elephant ladder stationed in the middle of the room, this spot affords her an overview of most of the library. Connected to Tani’s earbuds, she’s been informed that she is to say the code word, 'Bilde', once there’s been a confirmed sighting from either Emilia or Charl, and then take a rapid succession of pictures over the general area of Tani.

By doing this, the perpetrator would be caught in the act of stalking, and wouldn’t know that Tani has secured the image. One photo would be all it takes for him to have the upper hand of any future interaction. 

“Anita. End.” Tani addresses her sternly.

[“Yes? End.”]

It’s now that he digs deep into his mind to pull out some of the Norwegian words he has learned since he met her.

“Du har dette… End.”

[“End!”]

For whatever reason, Tani can’t help but feel like Anita is his most reliable accomplice in this situation. Now all that’s left for him to do is wait until he receives word that his stalker is caught watching him from afar; with fifteen minutes left before lunch period ends, there’s plenty of time for this mystery person to show up.

[“There’s someone walking right towards you. Over.”]

Tani perks up. “Already??”

[“Bilde!”] Anita exclaims, likely snapping away pictures as they speak.

He definitely wasn’t expecting such a quick development. He does his best to look around to spot the person Emilia has pointed out without making it obvious he’s being fed this information.

“Where? I don’t see anyone. Over.”

[“False alarm. Over.”]

After replying to him, the line goes silent. Tani is desperate for more info than that, but nothing is added.

Before he gets the chance to express his anger at Emilia for leaving him hanging, Charl’s voice pops into his earbuds like someone throwing a rock at him.

[“A girl has left a cubicle, she’s coming right for you. Out.”]

[“Bilde!!”] Anita’s voice rings in his ears.

“Wuah!” Tani’s heart jumps and he throws his attention towards the direction of an adjacent cubicle.

There is a girl there, dressed in the second year navy colored school uniform, she moves towards him with the intent of someone confident in their presence. He doesn’t recognize her, and he’s both confused and rattled as to who and why this person has been following him; being so close to finding out does enough to produce an uncomfortable sweat on his temple.

Now within a few feet, Tani is mentally prepared for this girl and for whatever she has to say. He stares at her combatively as she approaches, and she makes direct eye contact as soon as she feels the pressure of his gaze.

The two share a surreal moment of energy transferred between them.

And that moment ends in a lightning strike when the girl returns a perturbed glare and folds her arms like a person that was just violated. She mumbles to herself and jerks her head before walking right past him and out of sight.

Tani is frozen.

From what he was expecting, to what happened, was at such the opposite end of the spectrum that he’s overcome with the physical ailments of a dreadfully awkward interaction. Since the girl wasn’t coming to confront him, the way he looked at her must have sent a chill down her spine. He can only imagine what he just put her through, and his stomach cramps at the thought.

“That was just a person walking by! Over and out!!”

[“Ah, now you’re using that term properly.”] Charl replies.

“Don’t just send anyone my way, that was horrible for me!”

[“Copy that. Out.”]

[“..Incoming. Over.”]

“Emilia, If this is another false alarm I swear to god!”

[“Who are you talking to? I can’t be sure if I’m on the receiving end of your ire without our codeword. Out.”]

Confounded by Charl’s insistence to tease him despite his lingering feeling of embarrassment, Tani is incensed. His brilliant plan is in the process of backfiring because the ineptitude of his help.

[“I repeat. Incoming. This is not a drill. Over.”]

[“Bilde!”]

Distracted by his anger, Tani doesn’t notice the presence of someone until that person plops down on the chair right in front of him on the other side of the table.

“How the heck are ya, Akihiro-san?”

“Guah!!”

A girl with brown skin is sitting in front of him on the other side of the desk, staring at a startled Tani with stars in her bright magenta eyes. The way she’s smiling at him expresses familiarity, despite the fact that Tani has never seen her before.

“A-And you are?”

“You don’t know who I am?” she asks while gently flicking back a braid in her curly silver hair.

“Am I supposed to?”

She sends him a smile beaming in light. “I’m surprised that you don’t, but I’m happy about it nonetheless! My name is Mariko ---”

Tani holds his hand up between the two, interrupting her. “What I do know is that you’ve been following me around. I was waiting for you to show your face to me.”

“Hehehe.” the girl chuckles. “I mean, I couldn’t help but notice you and the European girl on the rooftop every day. I was planning on talking to ya, but since you weren’t there today I had to do some searching. I really wish you weren’t here in the library though, ughhh I can’t stand bein' in the library!”

Ignoring her statement and her overdramatic hand gestures, Tani remains straight faced. “What info are you trying to get out of me? I’ll have you know, I am not susceptible to torture.”

The girl named Mariko pinches her index finger and thumb together before sticking out her tongue. “Meh, you look like you’d fold under the slightest bit of pressure.”

Tani squints at her.

“But lucky you,” she says with a wink. “I’m not here to put you through the wringer.”

A bubbly smile remains on her face, presenting nary a threat. But Tani is reading her many cute expressions as if she were a KGB agent hiding nefarious intentions behind inauthentic movements.

“Truth be told, I’m in a bit of a dilemma.”

As confused as Tani is, he continues to feign being the dominant conversation partner. “And this dilemma is the reason why you’ve been following me this entire time?”

“I guess? It’s the reason why I’ve followed you here at least.”

Expecting the revelation of some grand conspiracy, he tries to hide his curiosity by staring at her in a Gendo Pose, his glasses reflecting the light coming through the windows hiding his eyes make him look like an imposing anime villain.

Mariko begins to look uncomfortable, and she shuffles in her chair and averts her gaze.

“H-Have you ever felt like you’re only doing the things you’re good at doing because someone else expects it of you?”

Remaining quiet, he is allowing her to continue to elaborate. Clasping at her elbows, she seems to be struggling to gather her thoughts.

“The thing is, I’ve been thinking about doing something for myself for once. I’m just nervous about what it would mean if I… If I..!”

She’s hesitating. Tani is almost salivating.

But a girl’s voice appears in his ears and it startles him, he had forgotten he’s kept the earbuds in this entire time.

[“Hey you, little foreign girl, are you Akihiro Tani’s girlfriend?”]

"!!"

Tani can’t recognize this girl’s voice, perhaps due to her distance from Emilia’s phone receiver, the voice sounds far away and a little bit muffled. Attempting to listen in immediately snatches his attention away from the brown skinned girl in front of him.

Emilia’s monotonous tone comes through the earbuds next. [“Who are you? Why are you hiding behind the bookshelf where I can’t see you?”]

[“My identity doesn’t concern you. Just answer the question.”] The girl’s voice is demanding despite the pitch of her tone being so light that it comes across as fluffy.

[“I am not.”] Emilia smoothly answers.

[“Uwahh~ really??”] The hidden girl’s change in tone is dramatic and reaches a pitch even higher than before.

[“Are you actually the one following Tani-senpai around?”]

Through the headphones, Tani can hear the sound of the hidden girl’s footsteps pitter pattering away, and even some books sliding off the shelf and landing on the ground in a series of thuds. A little bit discombobulated from the competing noises, he stands to his feet abruptly and looks towards the area where Emilia is positioned.

He sees nothing, despite sensing the commotion.

[“Tani-senpai, someone just asked me if I was your girlfriend, I might be blushing. Over.”]

“I could hear that!” Tani replies.

“So you understand what I mean??” Mariko asks as she looks up to Tani, her hands clasped together as though she has found salvation.

The brown skinned girl in front of him was briefly forgotten about just like the presence of his earbuds before. He didn’t hear a word she had to say about this supposed dilemma she’s in.

He drops down to his seat, clears his throat, and returns to his Gendo Pose. He can’t have her see him rattled, he must keep his composure.

“Dilemmas come in all shapes and sizes.” he declares. “Some only seem grave because they follow you around, instilling doubt in your every move. But in the end, it might be best to just let it catch you, and defeat it on your own terms. It’s the only way to escape.”

Tani isn’t so much as giving her advice as he is going with the flow of what he thinks the conversation is by comparing her situation to his own. If he met someone at a mixer and immediately forgot their name, pretending like he didn’t forget is the next course of action until he figures it out naturally.

“Oh wow, you’re like, super smart.”

“I am the smartest person you’ll ever meet.”

“Then I think I’m finally making the right choice.” Mariko says, the bubbly smile turning into something almost strained. “I can’t live my life worrying about disappointing people, ya know?”

Despite his Gendo Pose, Tani is hot beneath the collar. He most certainly has missed a big revelation, whatever she just admitted to him had to have been something he needed to hear.

“Mariko, was it?” he asks.

“Yeah!”

“Remind me what it is you plan on doing that will disappoint someone?”

He’s trying to play it cool, even though she may have already told him just that.

Mariko’s energy goes from very high to very low in a split second, and she again shuffles in her chair and looks away. Tani can’t be sure, but he thought he heard her stomach grumble as well.

“U-Um… Would it be rude of me to ask a favor of you?”

Both suspicious and nervous about what this favor can be, Tani hides it behind a statuesque posture.

“A lot of that has to do with what the favor is.”

“Aha yeah, of course."

'Brreeerrrrrgghh'

Her stomach has one hundred percent let out a dreadful growl, Tani can be certain of it now.

 "Uufff…” she groans.

She grabs at her abdomen and is beginning to look pale. Tani’s anticipation has skyrocketed.

“W-Would it be rude of me to ask you to…”

[“What are you to Akihiro Tani?”]

The mystery girl’s voice snatches his ears away from the brown skinned girl in front of him yet again.

[“Alas, my position has been breached. Out.”] Charl replies nonchalantly. [“Is there a reason why you’re hiding behind the cubicle wall where I can’t see you?”]

[“Depending on who you are to Akihiro Tani, you have no reason to know who I am.”]

Though an obvious attempt at menace, her delicate voice sounds about as threatening as a feather falling from the sky.

Charl seems amused when he replies, [“Akihiro Tani is my dear partner in love.”]

[“W-W-What!?”]

A thud is heard up against the cubicle next to Charl, the sudden noise wasn’t lost on anyone in the vicinity, including Tani.

[“Who better to teach me how to love than he? Ah, he’s the perfect specimen of a boy. I’ve learned so much about love already, I don’t know where I would be without his deft touch on the topic.”]

[“O-Oh my god… How have I missed such a major development!?”]

Tani abruptly stands to his feet and shouts, “That’s not true!”

The entire library looks towards him upon hearing that outburst, and he slinks back into his chair, flustered by their glares.

“Wow!” Mariko exclaims, her bubbly smile has returned even though she’s crouched over in her chair. “You really do understand what I’m going through!”

“Eh… yeah?”

Tani has let another important piece of information slide past him while paying attention to the voices in his earbuds.

“This is really giving me the confidence I was hopin' for.”

“That’s good.” Tani intertwines his fingers. “It takes a lot of confidence to be great at anything in life. Confidence attracts both friends and foe alike, but those that truly believe in themselves are able to handle both with ease.”

Tani is just making stuff up as he goes, trying to sound smart just because it seems that the girl named Mariko looks at him that way. In reality, he’s beginning to feel overwhelmed by the presence of the mystery person he's been hearing in his earbuds, and wants nothing more than to rush out of this conversation to find her.

“But anyways, I hope this little chat did you some good. If you don’t mind, there’s something I really need to tend to.”

Mariko doesn’t seem to mind his attempt to shoo her away, she actually seems relieved when she expels a gentle sigh in the process of standing to her feet.

“This was just what I needed, thank you.”

“Umm…” Tani scratches his head. “I’m glad I could help.”

'Breeeerrerghgh'

Mariko’s stomach rumbles, and she quickly clasps at her stomach and throws herself down onto her chair.

“Are you alright?” Tani asks, “If you’re hungry, there’s a vending machine in the back of the room.”

“N-No it’s definitely not that.”

Seeing her sweat profusely, Tani is genuinely concerned.

“Can I get you some water?”

Holding her abdomen with one hand, she uses the other to wave his suggestion away.

“I’m fine really! It’s just the library. This is why I hate libraries!”

“What do you mean?”

“When you’re in here, do you not have the sudden urge to---”

[“Hey, you golden haired foreign girl, don’t turn around and stay where you are… Who are you to Akihiro Tani?”]

Tani’s gaze sprints away from Mariko and towards Anita’s direction on the other side of the library some twenty meters away. He can see her atop the elephant ladder, but the view below her is obstructed by a bookshelf so he can’t see the mystery person he’s hearing on his earbuds.

Not able to understand the girl’s demands, Anita turns around and looks at the person talking to her.

[“Uwawawa I said not to turn around! Now I have to use my special ‘hide my face behind a book’ technique, I wasn’t expecting you to be such a formidable opponent!”]

Anita tilts her head and greets the girl hiding her identity with a smile. Tani is dying to find out who this person is, and rises all the way to his tippy toes in the hope of snatching a view of the perp.

[“If you just answer my question, we can both go our separate ways without anyone getting hurt.”]

The girl’s attempts at using her sweet voice to sound intimidating have reached cartoonist territory, it even inspires a little chuckle from Anita despite not understanding a single word of it.

[“What?”] Anita asks.

[“Akihiro Tani… Do you like him?”]

[“I like Tani!”]

Anita’s swift answer hits the girl with a force that almost makes her drop the book covering her face. Even Tani is taken aback and stumbles over his chair.

[“I-I see…”] The feathery voice of the girl sounding more like a deflated balloon replies, [“Then I know what I must do… Goodbye for now, foreign girl. Until we meet again!”]

Tani can see Anita wave at whoever it was she was just talking to, and he’s about to make his move to cut the stalker off and unravel the mystery, but he is halted by the person he has given his attention to sparingly.

“W-Wait!” Mariko implores. “Don’t make me feel embarrassed about it by running away, we all do it! Most of us do it every day, some of us even twice!”

“What are you talking about??” he asks, his patience has gone the way of the dodo.

“Libraries make me have to poop!”

“Gbbbwwckkk!??” An indecipherable cacophony of noise escapes his mouth.

“S-So don’t run away from my honesty!”

“I honestly don’t know why you’d tell me something like that!”

“Because you asked me what was wrong, idiot!”

Tani looks away from Mariko and scours the room in an attempt to find the hidden girl, but it would seem in his moment of distraction he’s let her slip away.

Mariko mistakes his apprehension for dejection directed her way, with a curt puff out of her nose, she stands to her feet and says, “Where I’m from, we’re much more open about things. I guess I oughta watch what I say since we’re going to be spending a lot more time with each other.”

Tani is now in full blown confusion mode, he's more like a robot in the process of breaking down when he asks, “Where you’re from? Time with each other? What, is, happening?”

“You couldn’t tell by my accent?”

He had spaced out for the majority of their conversation, considering her dialect, he would guess she's from Okinawa.

“...Enlighten me?”

“My name is Mariko Pershing. I’m American.”

Tani just about collapses. “That would explain the shamelessness!”

“Honesty is not shameless!”

"Not to mention, Mariko?? Is this some kind of joke!?"

His mind connects the dots of her ailments inside of the library to the Mariko Aoki phenomenon, he can't believe that he's become a witness to it in real life.

Mariko puffs again and starts walking away, leaving Tani in a dustbowl of his own thoughts.

“I’m not finished with you yet, I have more questions!”

She stops and turns around. “It can wait till later can’t it? I’ll be seeing you in the Languages clubroom later today.”

“...Eh?”

'Brbrbbrbrbbrbgghhh'

Mariko’s stomach grumbles and she lets out a sharp groan of discomfort, she shakily backs away from him and says, “So if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment with the porcelain throne!”

She turns around and darts away at an incredible speed. “Don’t ever make me go into the library again!”

Flabbergasted by everything that transpired in the last few minutes, he lets himself collapse into his chair, his entire frame sinking into the back rest. No sooner than he sits down, the remaining members of ‘Operation Catch the Stalker’ find their way back to him.

“I now believe that your stalker is a real person." Charl says as he watches the brown skinned girl literally sprint out of the library. "But if she's not the culprit, then who is she?"

In an overtly exasperated tone, Tani answers,

“...That girl is apparently the fourth member of our Languages club.”

Today’s UN Lesson --- Awareness isn’t just visual!