Tuesday, 7th of April 2009. 18:05
The private jet landed in a small airfield a few miles outside of Iwatodai a few minutes earlier than planned. This suited the passenger fine, as it would give him that extra time to acclimatise before the difficult work began. First off he had to locate Haruto before the next full moon so he'd be in position for when the situation hit the fan. He'd also need to get hold of the rest of his required equipment, after all there was a chance he'd meet opposition to his goals. The young heir gave the stewardess a knee-buckling smile as he passed her and exited down the ramp towards the attendants who were waiting for him.
"Mochizuki-Sama," the old man leading the group addressed the heir, accompanied with a bow, as he descended the ramp.
"Hiroshi-san," Ryoji replied, with a carefree smile and a mock bow. "How many times must I keep telling you to call me Ryoji?"
"Always one more than you already have," the sixty year old replied as he fell in beside his young master.
A small smile came to Ryoji's face. "Is that so?"
"Indeed," his advisor replied as they climbed into their waiting vehicle. He ordered the driver to begin their journey before finally carrying on the conversation. "I trust the board wasn't too vocal in its objection?"
"The old fossils were as vocal as expected," he explained. "It's lucky Gekkoukan is the current educator of the heiress of the Kirijo Group. The board are still looking for ways to keep things amicable between both sides and a friendship between the two heirs will be a good way to form a mutually beneficial relationship in the... Ugh! I'm starting to sound like them now," Admitted the teen as he cast away his eyes in frustration.
"Now, now Mochizuki-Sama, your backstabbing capabilities aren't quite honed enough for that."
"At least now I know why Nii-san decided to follow his parents' wishes," he laughed before the mirth vanished. "Have you been able to find him?"
"Yes." Ryoji was given a slip of paper with an address written on it. "Namikaze-Sama has been assigned to a co-ed dorm on mainland Iwatodai."
"Co-ed eh?" he replied with a lady-killer smirk. "I guess there no chance of staying at the dorms then?"
"No." Aw well, it was worth a shot. "The board has made it very clear that you are to stay within the Mochizuki residence here in Iwatodai."
"So they can keep an eye on me then."
"Sadly that is the truth. However it won't take too much effort to have the offending members of staff removed."
"I'll leave that in your capable hands then."
"I must say finding Namikaze-Sama was a bit more difficult than expected." After receiving the nod to continue, he carried on. "The records state that he should have been assigned to a room in the boys-only dorm on Port Island. There was a deliberate change just before the welcome pack was sent out."
"Any idea who ordered the change?"
"We can't say. It seems to have been done at the last moment in order that the paper trail couldn't be followed. I'd have racked it down to a clerical error if it wasn't the fact that he's now in the same dorm as Kirijo Mitsuru."
"He's been placed with the heiress of the Kirijo Group?" There were few things left that could shock the teen, especially after he'd regained his suppressed memories, but this had to count as one of them. "Do they know…?"
"No. The board has been quite thorough in keeping the discord hidden inside the organisation. They know that the business world would see it as a sign of weakness."
However there was a second, more serious, question. "Does the board know?"
"No. I've made very sure that they don't know where Namikaze-Sama is or of the situation." The old advisor stated. "I don't think I would be able to face Arashi-sama in whatever the next world is if I failed either of you two."
"He's not my father," Ryoji replied. After all, his origins came from something a bit more extraordinary.
"You are Namikaze-sama's brother are you not?" When the advisor saw the small nod he let out a small smile before finishing his argument. "Then it doesn't matter about the details. You have their blood in your veins and they would have taken you on as their son regardless."
"I guess once I reach the next life I'll find out," the heir stated before changing the topic. "Did you bring the thing I asked for?"
The advisor pulled a small metal briefcase from the floor in the car and passed it over to the young heir. "A Kirijo Group Evoker as requested."
Ryoji opened the case, looked at the silver handgun stored within. It may not be able to fire proper bullets, but against the type of foe he would be facing, it was the best weapon he could hope for. Everything was starting to come together. "Thank you."
Tuesday, 7th of April 2009. 23:38
Kirijo Mitsuru sat on one of the couches in the lounge within the dorm. The TV was on, however that just served to provide background noise as she carried on reading the file she'd acquisitioned from the student records cabinet. Her encounter with Namikaze Haruto last night had sparked her interest in the new student, during her time in charge of S.E.E.S. she had been involved with monitoring dozens of students to see if they had the potential. So far they had found four.
Four
And one of those had quit so that pretty much left it at three. One thing that always annoyed her was that no one actually questioned what happened within this dorm. There were occasions where she had walked past a candidate in full club getup and they hadn't even queried what she was doing. At best she was questioned about the gun she carried and her generic excuse about self-defence always ended any more questions.
Namikaze Haruto had changed that.
The fact that he'd entered the dorm during the Dark Hour, as if nothing was wrong, genuinely excited her. Those that she had encountered with potential were unsuitable for combating the threat that S.E.E.S. had been formed to deal with. Those who were took a while to adjust; Takeba for example had taken a while to get over the existence of the Dark Hour after she had awakened to her potential and that she still couldn't bring herself to summon forth her Persona. Namikaze didn't have an issue with the Dark Hour, which only left a query about if he could bring himself to summon his Persona.
They would see in time.
There was also the fact that he was suspicious of what was going on. It didn't take a psychoanalyst to figure out that he had been wary of both Takeba and herself during their first meeting, partly because Takeba had nearly drawn on him. On that thought, she'd have to look into the Group's research into Evokers. Someone nutcase must have done an experiment on what would happen if someone shot someone else with an Evoker. If not, then it was best if she'd made sure it would never happen. Anyway, Namikaze had been surprised by their ability to function in the Dark Hour, the breach of his mask had been subtle but she had spotted it. This left her to believe that he'd been aware of the Dark Hour for a while and had adapted to it already. This opened a small window of hope deep down.
Was this someone who could have lived with this as long as she had?
She was also impressed by his attitude to the incident once the Dark Hour was over. He'd questioned them as to why they had handguns and when she'd given the generic excuse, she could tell that although he had let the matter drop then he wasn't going to just leave it at that.
And he hadn't.
When she had gone to pick up his file, Toriumi-sensei had spoken to her about how Haruto was asking about a club called S.E.E.S. She'd managed to smooth over the situation pretty much by telling the teacher it was probably the student ethical and environmental discussion group and that he must have mistaken the D for an S. Fortunately Toriumi dropped the subject after this as she stated that Namikaze had come to the conclusion that he'd misread something as well. They weren't dealing with an idiot. She'd seen that when his sharp eyes had locked onto hers in order to try and read more into the situation, seen that same one-eyed look turn Takeba into a nervous wreck who couldn't lie to save her life. He was intelligent, had perception and was also cautious enough to not rattle the cage with too many questions, qualities that she found very attractive in a man…
Not that she was looking for that sort of… Anyway
That actually left her with a worrying question: Would he find the camouflaged security camera hidden in his room?
"I'm going out for a bit," she heard a voice say as it moved in front of where she was sitting.
"Hm…?" she queried as she turned her attention to the only resident of the dorm Namikaze hadn't met.
"Didn't you see the newspaper? There's a lot going on," the silver-haired senior stated.
Mitsuru sighed as she rested the file on her lap. "... I know. People who had no problems before are suddenly developing acute cases of Apathy Syndrome... I've seen it in the news quite often lately. They say it's due to stress, but..."
"Yeah, right. It has to be THEM. Otherwise, it's not worth my time," the teen replied as he tugged a crease out of his waistcoat.
Now she was worried. "You have a one-track mind... Will you be okay on your own? The Chairman will be here for the next few days, but after that, I can..."
"Don't worry. I'm just getting a little practice." It wasn't a surprise that the silver-haired senior wasn't too worried; although he was the school's undefeated boxing champion, he'd also been working for S.E.E.S for years. "What's that you're reading there…?"
Maybe she should have closed the file. "This? It's nothing…"
Too late. "Ah reading up on our guest are we?" the male asked, a smirk working its way onto his face.
"I take it Takeba has filled you in?"
"You mean the whole: Walks in during the Dark Hour like nothing's wrong, Yukari nearly shoots him with her Evoker, asks why you have guns, you lie through your teeth, goes to sleep, the end?"
"He actually asked one of the teachers what S.E.E.S. was during lunch."
"You're kidding me." Even she had to admit, the look silver-haired boxer gave her was gold.
"I wish I was. I bumped into Toriumi while getting this info, she asked me if I knew what he was talking about. Of course I said that he'd probably misread the club name, seems he came to the same conclusion."
"Yeah, right."
"He's investigating us," Mitsuru stated. "The chairman is coming over to do a few nights of analysis before we approach him."
"If he's that sharp he'll notice the camera before then," he pointed out. "We should just talk to him now, before he finds out the truth on his own and we lose a potential ally because of trust issues."
"I know." To be honest she'd been down this train of thought as well. Even if he didn't have the potential there were things that someone this intelligent could do to help. "But it's not my call. The Chairman has to agree."
"Hold on." The smirk resurfaced. "You went to get his file before talking to Toriumi-sensei."
A slight blush appeared on the heiress' cheeks. "Well… Yes… But…"
"Is the Ice Maiden of the Kirijo Group actually interested in a guy?" The look on his face was pretty much the same as it would have been if he'd just seen hell freeze over while breathing laughing gas.
Crimson eyes narrowed. "If you even consider carrying on with this conversation, I will execute you."
Suddenly the smirk was on the other face as the look of amused surprise turned to a look of fear and horror. "W-Well… I-I'll just be going."
The smirk turned into a full-on grin as the boxer, in a move of retreat, tripped over the table and then scurried out of the door. Only when he was gone did the grin turn into a look of concern as she sighed. "This isn't a game, Akihiko..."
She glanced once more at the photo attached to the file. Okay she had to admit, he was attractive and he interested her, but she was a Kirijo. She was expected to marry a man selected for her by the head family as a way to bring the group forward. It was safer not to risk falling in love with someone if you couldn't be together.
The idiot who wrote "It is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all" didn't have a clue what he was talking about.