"Are you mental, bro? Getting up close and personal makes it that much easier to keep tabs on them. Obviously."
"If you become attached, it can cloud your judgment. In order to maintain a rational power of observation—"
"Yeah, in theory!" interrupted Kurz. "In times of great danger, you have to use your head, feel it out a little bit."
"But…"
"Am I wrong?"
Sousuke stared dumbly at Kurz, unable to say 'yes' or 'no.' He wasn't even sure what point he was trying to refute anymore.
"Man, those girls talked my ears off," began Kurz. "'There's a really weird transfer student in our class, right Kana? Isn't he weird, Kana? Tell him about the new kid, Kana.' I can't believe they didn't want to talk about important things… like me."
Suddenly, Sousuke perked up. "What did they say about me?"
"I see. So, you want to know, do you?" Kurz gloated.
"Not really, no. But it's part of the mission, so I should hear it."
"Not buying it. First, say, 'Please, sir, tell me some more.'"
Sousuke was not amused.
"Okay, fine. You don't have to be such a baby about—" spotting Something suspicious, Kurz suddenly became very sober.
He moved closer to the surveillance screen.
"Twenty-one hundred twenty-one: suspicious individual on the balcony side. Commencing investigation," reported Sousuke.
The monitor showed Kaname's apartment's balcony, courtesy of a hidden camera on the roof of an adjacent building. On the left side of the image, a man clad in black and a knitted mask scaled the building's drainpipe.
"Is he stupid enough to go alone?" remarked Sousuke while screwing a silencer onto a nine-millimeter handgun.
"Dunno. There still could be others nearby. I'll check cars in the area," said Kurz, grabbing a nearby sniper rifle with a night vision scope.
"This is Urzu Two," said Mao, through the wireless. "Let's subdue the perp. Urzu Six, take that rifle to the roof where the camera is."
"Urzu Six, roger."
"Urzu Seven, subdue him directly. I'll be in the parking lot, keeping watch."
"Got it. Give me two minutes."
Slinging rappelling gear over his shoulder, Sousuke rushed out the door.
One-hundred twenty seconds later, he was on the roof of Kaname Chidori's apartment building. He clipped the rope to the railing and nimbly wound it around his waist. Kurz's voice came through his earpiece.
"This is Urzu Six. I'm in position by the camera. There's no sign of accomplices. He actually might be flying solo."
"Don't let down your guard, especially at your six."
"Who do you think you're talking to, bonehead?"
Mao interrupted their banter. "Perfect timing, Urzu Seven: Kaname's in the shower. Let's try to take care of this before she comes out."
"Urzu Seven, roger."
"Don't kill him."
"I know."
And just like that, Sousuke threw himself off the roof. Aside from the slight whisper of the rope sliding through his hands, he was silent. After bounding down the wall a couple of times, he was directly over the prowler's head.
The intruder was so focused on climbing over the railing onto the balcony that he didn't even notice Sousuke.
Taking one last leap off the wall, Sousuke skillfully twisted in midair and crashed down on the back of the man on the balcony.
"Don't move." Sousuke pressed his silenced gun against the back of the intruder's head. "You lose. Don't make a sound." Shaking violently, the man nodded.
"Good, you value your life."
Keeping the man pinned to the ground, Sousuke conducted a brief body search. The pat down turned up no weapons, only a wallet. Sousuke took a look at it.
Inside, there was a student ID.
Jindai High School, Year 2, Class 4, #10. Shinji Kazama.
This boy was in Sousuke's class.
"Urzu Six to Urzu Seven."
"What?"
"Sousuke, look at what he's holding."
Sousuke saw what appeared to be several small pieces of cloth.
"Panties," smirked Kurz. "White as fallen snow. End transmission."
Sousuke looked over to see Kurz laughing and packing up his gear. "For crying out loud," grumbled Mao as she retreated in the camouflaged M9.
"What are you doing, anyway?" demanded a confused Sousuke. He pulled off the prowler's mask.
The boy underneath—thin, childlike, and pale—trembled with fear.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'll never do it again!"
"Shh!" hissed Sousuke, pressing the gun tighter against the boy.
Much quieter, the boy said, "Sorry. Please don't arrest me."
"I'm not the police," clarified Sousuke. "I just want you to explain yourself."
"You won't arrest me?"
"Relax." Sousuke pulled the boy to his feet.
"Thanks. Hey, you're from my class. Sagara, right?"
"You must be mistaken."
"No way! You're—"
Sousuke cocked his gun. "I said, 'you must be mistaken.'"
Nodding feverishly, the boy apologized.
"Now, Kazama, right? What are you doing here?"
Holding out the underwear, Shinji Kazama said, "As you can see, I'm on a panty raid—looks like we had the same idea."
"No, I was just in the neighborhood," fibbed Sousuke.
"Oh. Right." Though confused, Shinji didn't try to argue.
"Why on Earth are you trying to steal Miss Chidori's undergarments?"
"They're not for me," whispered Shinji. "Murano and the others—"
"Murano?" inquired Sousuke.
Shinji Kazama revealed the situation.
Every school has its share of delinquents, and Murano was Jindai High School's chief hooligan. He and his goons knew that Shinji was in the photography club, and they pushed him around and stole some of his negatives. They would give them back only in exchange for Kaname's underpants.
"So, you're being blackmailed?" iterated Sousuke.
"More or less." Kazama sighed. "But those guys really aren't that bad. They just wanted me to prove that I had enough guts to steal underwear from the most popular girl at school."
The convoluted plots of deviants never failed to strike Sousuke as immensely ridiculous. "I see. Did you ever think that Miss Chidori might be rather upset?"
"Well, yeah," admitted Kazama guiltily, "but I really want those negatives back."
"What's on them?"
"Arm Slaves. All different kinds, but U.S., Japanese, and self– defense models mostly."
"Oh yeah?" Suddenly, Sousuke was quite interested.
"Yeah, I went around to bases all over Japan to take those pictures. It was a ton of work, too. Isn't AS technology one of your hobbies, Sagara?"
"I wouldn't exactly call it a hobby…"
"I've even got a picture of a Marine M6 in Okinawa."
The M6 first saw combat in the early '90s, most prominently in the Gulf War. Once people saw it on the news, it became an extremely popular piece of equipment.
"Was it the A2 model? "
"Yeah. It had a shield with reactive armor and everything."
"Really? How were its actual movements?"
"The operators at the base said the balance wasn't great," Shinji reported. "That makes sense, because its control system is the Rockwell-built MSO-II, right? The feedback architecture has a lot of flab, so when the bilateral angle exceeds three point five, it's even susceptible to handheld firearms."
Sousuke nodded, acknowledging all the jargon.
"Basically, its best use still would be a well-plotted ambush or a suicide charge. I read somewhere that the newest model M9s are still a long way off from widespread use…"
As Shinji rambled on about technical mumbo-jumbo, the two young men sat cross-legged on the balcony. Their military geek discourse soon buried all memories of the foiled underwear theft.
"Your knowledge is impressive. You don't sound like a civilian at all," praised Sousuke.