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messiah novel (you are in shine, part 9)
During the early morning of January 7th Eiri had put on the school uniform for S school that had been prepared by the Church, and blended in with the other students as he climbed the slope.
The mission that Ichijima had given to Eiri and Haku had been to infiltrate S school and guard a specific person.
"Good morning."
While bowing to the teacher that was standing at the school gate, Eiri casually passed through.
Due to the cold front that had come around to Kanto the day before, all students are walking at a quick pace while puffing out white breath. Among them was the figure of the target they had to guard as well.
His height was about 170 cm, and since his bangs and side locks were long, his facial expression always seemed gloomy. A young, slightly slender boy with glasses.
Ushio Yoshiya. A second year student at S high school, 17 years old.
His father was the prime minister, Ushio Junjirou.
He was a big-shot at the ruling party with connections to the minister of foreign affairs when the "world reforming" had been arranged.
Right behind Ushio Yoshiya a man in his late twenties was walking in a salaryman sort of outfit.
(... That's the SP from the police department, isn't it?)
According to the data that Ichijima had provided, his name was Kaminari Itto. Twenty-eight years old. Already been assigned to the security department of the metropolitan police department for two years. A university graduate.
He couldn't ever be allowed to get to know of the existence of section five. Until the very end Eiri had to only be recognized as a high school student, a classmate.
So it was necessary that Eiri got close to Ushio on a personal level.
(First of all I need to get a grasp on Ushio's behaviour pattern. After that I'll get in contact with him.)
During the class on English grammar Eiri kept catching sidelong glances at the entirely normal side profile of Ushio Yoshiya, who sat three rows diagonally ahead of him.
"Mr. Sato."*
Suddenly Eiri's alias was called out.
There was a sound of shoes' heels hitting the ground, and a man was standing on the left side of Eiri's desk.
Different than Eiri, he was wearing blue-grey slacks and a white shirt. The armband on his arm matched the outfit to a point that it was gaudy.
"What do you think of the sentence that Romeo gazed at Juliet?"
The teacher said. His height was slightly above average, and he wore teacher-like glasses with a thin silver frame. And more than anything, his facial expression showed that he was very highly strung.
Eiri let out an inward sigh.
(... This guy. You're so weird that it's conspicuous.)
"Romeo thinks opposite sex can be gazed at the equivalent face was confident."
Eiri replied. After considering for a moment that "Sato Yuuichi" was supposed to be a kid who only just returned to the country, he decided to respond as a native would.
The honor students in the class who understood the answer started whispering among themselves.
"Good."
The teacher walked past him after lightly poking his desk with a whiteboard marker.
(This guy.)
The teacher's face looked like a mannequin from a luxury brand store.
"What was up with that during class?"
Eiri and Haku's base for the mission was about a ten minute walk from the Ushigome-kagurazaka subway station, in a residential district with old temples lined up next to each other. It was since Ushio Yoshiya's, the target's, house was about another ten minute walk from there in Yokoteramachi.
Of course, just to make sure, Eiri had taken a different route home than Haku. They had returned home over different roads, Haku by car and Eiri by train.
Haku had been forced to participate in a staff meeting for his fake job that day, he came home at 9 pm.
Even though you'd say they lived there together, Eiri didn't do any housework or take any baths. They didn't use any cleaning service to avoid other people entering the house. Only the laundry machine was in full operation, and their main meals were just lunch boxes.
Haku only bought chocolate. Limited winter editions of half-dry confectionery from specific brands, a limited strawberry flavour, carmel-coffee flavor, etc. It wasn't anything that you could call a substitute for the lunch boxes.
"As expected, it's M company's strawberry truffles. They deserve a special mention."
He raised his voice in admiration.
"Hey, are you listening to me?"
"I'm listening. ... The macadamia flavor was mediocre."
It was a disappointed murmur.
He ate this stuff instead of dinner, and then drinks that same old milk drink. He must have heartburn already, just thinking about the amount of sugar in it.
(I'm getting a headache.)
But this Mitsumi Haku was very excellent as a spy.
This guy, with a face as graceful as a mannequin from a luxury brand store and takes a gulp of that milk drink every day, was once scouted by Ichijima and got to Maru school. In his first year he mastered both Chinese and Russian, and he's able to use four different kinds of regional Russian dialects.
He had a lot of experience as well, and even though he's still a student, he finished a lot of Sakura solo missions. Something that stood out to Eiri in particular was when they were practicing in Russia and he discovered a Santa doll on the chimney in the headquarters of the intelligence gathering service on Christmas Day. He had heard that Ichijima and the other people from section five had burst out into laughter at that kind of taste.
But Haku himself had just said that he couldn't get Nanny in Moscow and didn't want to go there again.
But contrary to his amazing achievements thus far, he was being kept at a distance by everyone within the spy academy called Maru school due to his shady history. It was since two people he had been partnered up with had died during the graduation test when he had still been a preparatory student.
"The two people who had been partnered up with that guy until now have both died."
It wasn't clear under what kind of circumstances those two had died, and Haku didn't talk about it either.
It had already been two years since that guy had become his partner.
And yet, when he thought about it, Eiri didn't know anything about Haku. And Haku also didn't know anything about him. Although there was a certain amount of trust between them as partners, Eiri didn't know where Haku was born and how he had lived up until now.
What Eiri did know about Haku was that he was a weird sort of convenience store and confectionery junkie, and that he was looking for his brother who had gone missing when he was just a child. That was about it. They didn't talk about anything else, so he didn't know more. Although they technically shared the same apartment, their private rooms were seperate, and it was extremely rare for them to have full conversations outside of mission-related talk.
(We don't have a nationality or a family register, no past and no family. No one will come to help us, no law will protect us. A person like that doesn't exist, with those simple words our end will be covered up.)
No one could help a Sakura that's been captured. They couldn't be saved.
Even Ichijima would abandong Eiri if he, for example, spotted him at work on the scene and arrested him. And Sakura have to adhere strictly to the rules. In other words, he'd have to commit suicide.
But the one one who would be allowed to do something to save him was his partner from Maru school, his Messiah. Only the Messiah who you spent time with at Maru school was allowed to help a Sakura who was captured in enemy territory.
Haku's Messiah was Eiri.
But if Eiri had to infiltrate the North, was arrested by the police while failing in an assassination attempt and would be disposed of as a stateless person, would Haku then come and put his life on the line for him?
He wondered if that person would rescue him.
"Eiri."
"What?"
"Don't sneak too many glances at Ushio."
Haku said.
"From the teacher's platform it's completely visible that all you care about is Ushio."
Eiri suddenly grit his teeth when he realised that was why Haku asked him what Eiri thought about the sentence in which Romeo started at Juliet.
"I can't go near Ushio. I'll leave that to you. Did you think about how to start contact with Ushio?"
"... No."
Eiri called to mind all of that guy's actions from the past several days.
Ushio's actions had been pretty plain since Eiri entered S school. He wasn't really being bullied, but he didn't have any particularly close friends either. As far as club activities went, he only participated once a month in special activities, and he didn't have any extra classes for hobbies outside of school. His grades were average, and he seemed to go to a prep school to supplement his studies. It felt like a strict prep school, since he wouldn't be able to go to a desired university as things were now.
One way or another, he had to think of a way to get close to Ushio. Moreover, it had to be a natural way that wouldn't arouse any suspicion.
"What does Ushio usually do during his daily routine?"
"Every day he eats his boxed lunch in the classroom. Sometimes he has bread, but there doesn't seem to be any regularity to it. His appetite seems pretty normal, and he doesn't eat any snacks. Ah, come to think of it, he often sneakily puts peppermints in his mouth during class."
The mint flavored refreshing pills that you can eat quickly, just like lemon candy, are used a lot by nervous people. It's since they would worry a lot about having bad breath.
Does Ushio have some kind of obsessive compulsion? Is he worried about bad breath, or is there some weak part in his guard? Why would there be a weak part?
"Your bangs got wet."
"What?"
"Just now."
Eiri scratched at his lower lip with the nail of his thumb. It was a habit when he thought of something.
For an instant he had thought of a good way to seize Ushio Yoshiya's heart.
After the morning classes are over, the students of the boys' high school who had been waiting with a strong appetite rushed to the stairs of the southern school building. They were heading for the school cafeteria in the basement.
Eiri was chewing on an incredibly sweet new kind of bread called Melon Honey Chocolate, which Haku had bought yesterday at the convenience store, and carefully kept an eye on Ushio Yoshiya.
The target, Ushio Yoshiya, was eating lunch from a lunchbox that he had brought along.
It was a small lunch box that didn't seem to suit the healthy appetite of students from a boys' high school. Inside it was chicken stew, potato salad, cherry tomatoes and rice. He also couldn't help but think there wasn't even a little bit of fried food in there.
After making sure that Ushio was done eating, Eiri took out a small tube with liquid from his bag and shoved it into the back pockets of his pants, and then left the classroom.
Ushio always ate his lunch boxes quickly. Since he didn't talk to anyone while eating, he just silently moved his chopsticks. Although he wasn't being bullied, even in class he was relatively quiet.
He had casually asked around, and it seemed that in this class only he had been admitted to this high school instead of moving up from junior high.
(Is it since he's the son of an important politician that his schools before now were different ones?)
Surprisingly he had gone to a normal public school until junior high. Even though Ushio's family was the most noted family when it came to politics, considering both his grandfather and father had experience with being the prime minister.
(Maybe there's some special reason. What happens during that time would have a big influence while his personality was still being formed...)
After that Ushio put the lunch box back into the dish cloth, grabbed the bag that was hanging on the left side of his desk, and left his seat. Eiri didn't miss that in that moment that he took something out of his bag that he'd been hiding.
Eiri had made predictions as to what Ushio did after he was done eating his meal.
The important thing was how he could use that to get closer to Ushio and how Ushio would allow him to form a connection with him.
(As expected, the people from the police aren't inside the school, right?)
Kaminari Itto wasn't anywhere in the school building. Maybe he was waiting nearby in a parked car, or he was sitting still in a room they borrowed in the school building. He would surely be tagging along whenever Ushio went home from school, so it was more convenient to make contact while at school.
On the third floor of the new school building, an unpopular floor with classrooms where classrooms where only few people got lessons, a music room and a audiovisual computer room were lined up, Eiri arrived first in the boys' toilet and waited for him.
Since it was lunch break, there weren't a lot of people in the school building. And yet Ushio enters this bathroom every day. And always after he had eaten his lunch from his lunch box.
Pat, pat.
There was the slight sound of footsteps.
Eiri stood in front of the washbasin, put the tube that he had put in the back pocket of his pants in front of the mirror and lathered its contents onto his palm. It was important to get the right timing.
Pat, pat, pat.
The footsteps gradually became louder.
Eiri heard the source of the footsteps walk up to the bathroom's entrance, put a rubber artificial facial beauty spot filled with red paint below his lower lip, and then smeared his face with bubbles while avoiding that spot. He turned the tap, and washed away the bubbles slowly with both hands.
The footsteps stopped. Ushio stopped at the entrance.
Still pretending to not notice him, Eiri pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket with his still wet hands and wiped his face. And then he finally faced Ushio, who was standing in the doorway as if he was pertrified.
"Ah."
Eiri crammed the handkerchief back into his pocket while pretending as if he saw something bad. Since he had wiped his face dry so hurriedly, a drop of water fell from his bangs, making a small sound.
(Ushio was watching me.)
The timing had been exactly as he had measured.
The reason Ushio Yoshiya went from his classroom all the new to a distant toilet in the new school building on purpose was due to the red acne that was spread over his forehead, cheeks and temples.
If he had been a female student, it wouldn't have been strange or funny to go to the bathroom to fash your face and apply a facial cleanser or lotion. But that was not the case if you were a boy. The attention of classmates would be drawn to you if you washed your face with a facial cleanser and put on the facial lotion that girls would use. Just that would be enough for bullying to start.
(Ushio's acne is fairly bad. That's why he went here to wash his face, to avoid being seen.)
Eiri had guessed as much. And that's why he had decided to perform the same actions as him.
The red paint was used as a disguise to seem like impromptu facial acne.
"....."
After having seen Eiri wash his face, Ushio didn't say anything in particular.
Eiri decided to use his last resort. He took the tube with the face washing foam out of his back pocket and passed it over to Ushio.
It should be obvious what Eiri had been doing. Also due to the dark red painful-looking acne on Eiri's chin.
"---- Sato, right? Do you always wash your face here?"
Ushio suddenly said.
Bingo.
Eiri chuckled on the inside and slowly turned to look at him.
He took the bait. He'd been waiting for this.
"That's right. It's since I'm worried about my acne."
Hah, he gulped. He had found it. A kindred soul who had the same problems and who could talk about them.
"... Me too."
Ushio Yoshiya quickly fell into Eiri's hands.
notes:
* the bolded parts were actually in english in the novel as well, so i just kept them as they are in there, even though the english is a little wonky, considering it indicates when they speak english instead of japanese!