ōshō

The next morning we learned that progress on making a fake ID card was a bit slower than expected. Apparently the machinery they were using wasn’t cooperating. They estimated it would be at least another day or two before it was all done.

“Is there anything we can do in the meantime?” I asked Miyzaki-sama, who was currently painting a picture in the corner of his mood lit office.

“The only other step at this point is gathering all the ingredients we need to sabotage the batch. But I’ve already got people on that job.” He made a drastic stroke across the canvas, creating something that looked a bit like a lightning bolt striking a tree. “Don’t think this is our only operation though. If I wanted, I could have you kids do something else for the cause.”

I was getting a little antsy just sitting around, so it sounded like a good idea to keep up the momentum.

“What would you need done?” Ko asked.

Miyazaki-sama dipped his brush into some liquid and whipped it off. Then he turned his seat toward us.

“You could play mailmen for a day.” He smiled.

“Huh?” Ekko’s brow raised.

He delighted in our confusion.

“Occasionally, we’ll notice people who decide that they want to stop taking pills. They’re too scared to try and reach out, so we reach out to them.”

He had spies all over the city, watching for even the slightest divergence in a person's actions. The moment they spotted something, they’d watch them like hawks.

This would be an easy thing for us, since we just needed to secretly deliver messages to people. But our target was a little less conspicuous than we hoped.

His name was Matsudaira Takechiyo, and according to his profile, he was a neurotic one. They've been watching him for a while and clearly could tell he was off his meds. We’d find him in the southern part of Tokyo, where he usually walks to school everyday.

Ekko and I were the only ones going. Ko decided she needed a little time to herself.

Once we hit the surface, we headed for where we were told the guy would be going.

It was almost comedic how quickly we spotted him. It wasn’t the oversized glasses that shined like beacons in the sunlight, or pants tucked in a bit too high that gave away it was him. His lively eyes, darting all over, scanning everything in his path, that’s what gave him away. He easily had the most personality of anyone around here.

We followed him for a while, noticing some interesting quirk as he walked along.

For instance, he avoided touching people like it was a super power. He'd even dive into alleyways if he needed to avoid a crowd he wouldn't be able to pass through. It was adding a lot of time to his trip. It seemed he was aware of that fact too, since he left home so much earlier than most people just to get to the bus station on time.

The next oddity was that whenever he'd need to open doors or touch something, he'd put on gloves that he'd immediately throw into a small container he was carrying with him. Then he'd draw out new ones as needed.

Once he reached the bus station, it was about the same time most of the other student's would have gotten onboard. Ekko and I had identical uniforms to the ones from his school, so we got on too. Lucky for us, some Guardians of the Soul who went to that school happened to leave us a pair of seats in the back.

The only thing on my mind the whole time I was watching him was “Why hasn’t someone reported him yet?”

"How many people did you report when you were on the pill?" Ekko asked.

Her question stumped me for a second, because I couldn’t think of a time I actually reported someone. I’d heard stories and watched people get carted away, but it was never because of me that they got in trouble.

"I guess…nobody."

She nodded, proving her point.

"Reports are surprisingly rare because everyone either tries to ignore a problem, or thinks someone else will deal with it. Nobody wants to stand out or make enemies they don’t need. In his case though, people might even just be used to him doing weird things, especially if he does it routinely."

"You really think that's possible?" I asked, baffled at the idea.

"The pills just made us lose our emotions. It never said what's normal or not. That part was trained into us. But if all people have ever known is that this guy is neurotic, they probably don't think much of it."

It was an interesting theory, but if it was true, that would be something we could possibly exploit. Or at least, if it wouldn't take years to set up.

"It's just an idea I had,” Ekko clarified. “I don't have any studies or anything…"

"No, it's something to keep in mind," I said. “We saw first hand what society made us do. Consider our experience a primary source of info.”

Ekko chuckled. We played up the idea that we’d be in history books one day as heroes. The idea comforted me a little bit. I wanted a future where people could look back on the true dark age of mankind and be thankful they didn’t have to live in it.

Matsudaira hadn't sat down yet. He was vigorously cleaning his seat with an alcohol wipe. Then he disposed of it in that container of his.

Where was he getting all these cleaning supplies?

Once we got to his school, we followed him until we found his locker. The easiest way to get him this letter was to slip it through the thin slits on the top, but Ekko halted that thought.

"Wait." She pointed above us at a security camera. "This camera’s aimed right at his locker."

It looked almost purposefully with how it was aiming right at it. That may not have been a coincidence.

"What next?" I asked. "Can you slip it into his pocket when he passes by?" I asked.

"He can dodge people on instinct. No way it would work."

That didn't leave us with many options. Plus if we stayed in this hallway once everyone was in class, a hall monitor might get suspicious.

We decided to continue sneaking around him throughout the day. He had a fairly normal set of classes. Ekko and I used the identities of the aforementioned Guardian to get into a few of them.

Matsudaira sat all the way in the back of the class. I could see what he was doing from my seat, and he certainly wasn’t paying attention to the teacher.

He had a bunch of little wooden pieces with kanji on them. It was hard to tell, but one said gyokushō on it.

“Shogi,” Ekko whispered.

“That’s the game those old guys were playing when we got here, right?” I whispered back.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I don’t think he’s playing it right. I mean, I don’t know the rules, but he doesn't have the pieces lined up like I remember seeing.”

All the pieces were scattered around like they were protecting him.

He got suspicious of us and turned over to look. We immediately turned back to the teacher before he noticed what we were doing.

I could spot one thing about him before I darted my eyes forward. He had a shogi piece around his neck. It was the king.

***

Something about this guy was stranger than we originally thought. The more we were around him, the more I wasn’t sure they were just ignoring what he was doing. That camera pointing at his locker was especially strange.

“We need to get him this message,” Ekko said. “I think I know how to do it.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Trust me for a second…just stay here.”

As school was letting out for the day, Ekko approached the guy at his locker and struck up a conversation. I couldn’t hear what was going on though.

After she bowed to him, she just handed it to him and came back to me.

“Did you manipulate him?” I asked.

“All I did was asked him if he’d like to play shogi sometime. Then I pretended like the envelope had my number inside for him to call me,” she snickered. “You think he could deny a cute girl asking to join in on his hobby?”

That worked surprisingly well. Now it was up to him to read the letter.

“Aren’t you worried he saw your face?” I asked.

“I doubt we’ll be coming out here anytime soon. Even if he does remember my face, I gave him a fake name.”

I guess sometimes the best approach is a simple straightforward one. It definitely didn’t look suspicious from my angle.

*Vrrrmmm…Vrrrmmm*

My phone was buzzing. It was Ko.

“Hello?” I flipped the phone open and greeted my sister.

“Kitsune!” she sounded panicked. “Come back to The Old World, ASAP! Something’s happened…”