"There's still so much to learn," said Shinji modestly. "You sure know a lot, too, Sagara."
"Thanks, but—"
Clattering, the balcony curtain opened, interrupting Sousuke's attempts to be demure.
Sousuke and Shinji's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
Kaname stood in front of them, frozen with fright, rage, or some combination of the two. Her bath towel barely concealed her shapely chest, and it covered even less of her legs.
Tightly clutching her towel, Kaname demanded to know what was going on.
As Sousuke and Shinji struggled to explain themselves, Sousuke realized he harmlessly had been playing with a pair of underwear.
His eyes traveled from the damning cotton evidence to Kaname and back.
"Chidori!" he chirped. "What a coincidence."
Quietly, Kaname disappeared into her apartment.
Shinji and Sousuke shared a sigh of relief.
And then, she reappeared—with a metal softball bat in hand.
"That's one hell of a bruise, buddy!"
Kurz wrapped a sack of ice around Sousuke's arm.
"I believe she intended to kill us. Kazama got lucky—I distracted her just long enough for him to leap into the shrubs below."
"From the fourth floor?"
"Yes. He plunged into the cherry tree and to the ground from there."
"Were you trying to kill him?"
"I was lucky to get away. Imagine the lieutenant commander's disappointment if the girl we're supposed to protect had ended up killing me."
Kurz laughed. "Actually, I can totally picture his expression."
Knowing the lieutenant commander's stoic disposition, he probably would sigh once, fill out some forms regarding the distribution of the deceased's possessions, and then move right on to the next job. Lieutenant Commander Andrei Kalinin never seemed particularly surprised by any person's death.
"She'll probably really hate me from now on," complained Sousuke.
"I don't blame her, you perv," joked Kurz.
A moment later, Mao contacted them from the M9. "Guys, I was just on the horn with the de Danaan."
"New orders?"
"Yes. The mission's over: The enemy no longer has any reason to kidnap Kaname."
"What do you mean?"
"We blew the crap out of the base where she was wanted. We annihilated everything, including all their research data. That means we can relax for a while."
"Huh. So, do we go back to the ship now or what?" asked Kurz.
"That's the best part. We get to take a week off!"
"No way! Yes!" whooped Kurz, raising his hand for a high five.
Sousuke just sat there, looking disgruntled. "I was supposed to go on a class trip the day after tomorrow—five days and four nights."
"He said you should," Mao cleared her throat to do her best impression of Kalinin, '"Go and have a good time.'"
"The lieutenant commander said that?"
"Yeah. We already paid for the trip. Were to stick to the budget. Looks like it's an order."
"But—"
"Just go, Sousuke," said Kurz, who abandoned all hopes of a high five. "Relax. Kaname's safe, so just take a load off and try to act like a normal kid for a change."
After thinking it over for a moment, Sousuke said: "Okay, I'll go. It will be a valuable learning experience."
Although he was under direct orders to "have a good time," Sousuke was not in the best of spirits. Free of his mission's obligations, he was more than a little bit uncertain what to do with himself.
On top of that, Kaname really seemed to hate him this time. When their eyes had met by chance, Kaname simply had turned around and walked off in the other direction with Kyouko and the other girls.
"Well, you really can't blame her," lamented Shinji Kazama from his perch on the airport bench. "I mean, she did find you out on her balcony, having a chat with her panties in your hands."
Ever since the incident, Shinji and Sousuke were associates in shame, complicit in embarrassment.
"Hey, cheer up, Sagara."
"Right." Sagara looked forward to returning to the Tuatha de Danaan and receiving another assignment.
Why did he agree to go on the school trip, anyway?
"Okay, Class Four!" announced Miss Kagurazaka. "Have your tickets out and your IDs ready!"
Sulking, Sousuke and Shinji moved through the line and onto the plane.
Having seated a whole plane full of rowdy students, the stewardess breathed a sigh of relief. Actually, there were about eighty or so passengers that weren't part of the school trip. And as those passengers began boarding the plane, they already were rolling their eyes in anticipation of the students' youthful energy.
Visions of future headaches flashed through the stewardess' head. She grimaced.
"Hello?" called a passenger as he stepped through the door. "Can you tell me where my seat is?"
He waved his ticket in front of her.
"Yes, please follow me," she said, forcing a smile.
"I can't say I envy you, having to babysit all these students."
"It really isn't that bad," she said.
"I would snap for sure, probably toss them all out the window at twenty-five hundred feet."
Somewhat confused, she grunted.
"If we killed them all, we'd have a quiet flight, don't you think?"
"Sir, it isn't—"
"I'm only kidding," he explained, quite seriously. "Ah, there it is." The man smiled as he slid into his seat, but it was not at all a pleasant smile.
The jumbo jet reached its cruising altitude.
Having never been on a plane before, Kyouko gripped the side of the window and pressed her face against the glass. It was a bright and clear day, and she could see all of Tokyo.
"Wow, look! Hey, there's the Rainbow Bridge. Awesome!"
"There it is," Kaname said halfheartedly.
"Are you even listening, Kana?"
"Of course."
"Look, the Statue of Liberty!"
"Yep."
"The Eiffel Tower! "
"Neato," monotoned Kaname.
Kyouko nudged her. "What's the matter? You've been acting really weird all day. What happened?"
"Nothing, really." Kaname didn't feel like explaining that she was mad at herself. She thought she might learn a little bit about this Sagara character when he jumped out of the train window to follow her, but all she found out was that he was a geeky, moody, perverted stalker!
It was stupid of me to trust him, she thought glumly.
"Is it about Sagara?" guessed Kyouko.
"What? Of course not. No way. Ha ha. Ha ha ha!"
Despite Kaname's obvious use of her nervous "let's talk about something else" laugh, Kyouko had no intention of dropping the subject.
"Did he do something to you?"
"No, not really."
"I knew it. I mean, it was just Sunday that you said he actually might be a nice guy; but the very next day, you totally ignored him. What did he do?"
"Nothing, really."
"Come on, Kana. Even if you're scared to tell anyone else, you can tell me." Kyouko took Kaname by the hand. "You'll need to go to the hospital, too. I'll go with you."
"Hold on—"
"Don't worry—we'll make Sagara pay for this! I know this lawyer who deals with this kind of thing a lot. She's good, too."
"What are you blabbering about?"
Before Kyouko could answer, the plane pitched left and right, rocking back and forth. Kyouko let out a small yelp.