HA3 10.3 - Intel Mining
Monday afternoon, after completing training in Hiking Club, Hide usually would go straight to Beauty & the Beast to have endurance training and sport massage from Hanna. After that, he would go home to check his house before going to Hanna’s place.
But today, he wanted to carry intel mining on Shorimachi. Therefore, after Hanna gave him sport massage, he told her he couldn’t go to her place tonight. Fortunately, Hanna didn’t make a fuss and just assumed Hide had to carry his part time job with Takeo.
Of course, it was without a price. This week, he had to give Hanna’s ear cleaning and feet massage, and then take her to Cartel for a few cups of beer.
‘That’s a cheap price,’ Hide muttered while walked down the small street in his neighborhood. ‘Every woman and without exception, needs to be pampered in regular basis like a husky.’
Then, right after he made a turn in a corner, Hide spotted a kid sitting alone and reading manga in front of Blue Sora. This kid looked so out of place, as other tables were occupied by middle school kids.
Hide instantly let out a sigh. This lone kid was Shinji, Sayaka’s little brother, and this was not the first time he saw Shinji sitting alone in front of Blue Sora. Actually, almost every day he saw Shinji in such occasion, when he went home from Beauty & the Beast.
Wasting no time, Hide went in to Blue Sora buying his dinner and some snacks. After that, he went to Shinji’s table and sat in front of him.
“Are you sure you can hang out here this late?” Hide said as he put the snack in the table.
Shinji gasped for a moment before answering, “It’s fine.”
“I see.” Hide then opened a pack of spinach crackers and a pack of mixed nuts. “Have a snack with me then.”
“I thought Big Bro Hide will go straight home like usual,” Shinji curiously said.
‘I’m not your Big Bro.’ That was what Hide almost said, but he canceled it in the last moment. After putting a piece of spinach cracker in his mouth he then said, “Usually, I have lots of school work, but today I can relax a bit.”
“I see,” Shinji said before following Hide putting a piece of spinach cracker in his mouth.
“You don’t hang out with your classmates huh,” Hide casually said.
“Yeah,” Shinji openly admitted. “Kids from my class ban me to hang out here at the same time with them.”
“Why do they ban you?”
“We have different opinion about manga and it escalates,” Shinji casually replied.
“I see.”
Even though Hide already knew the real reason why Shinji being shunned by his classmates, he chose not to brought it up. Then, he changed the topic by asking Shinji about manga he read, and once he talked about it Shinji just couldn’t stop.
“My mom and Big Sis don’t understand this manga and they keep telling me to stop reading it.”
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“Well, I don’t think your mother and Big Sis want you to read manga about high school delinquent,” Hide casually said. “Female can have a very different view than male sometimes.”
“But Aizawa like it,” Shinji firmly said.
“Does Aizawa really like it?” Hide curiously asked.
“Yeah,” Shinji gave Hide firmly nod before explaining, “We used to talk about this manga a lot. She even borrowed it from me several times.”
“I see.”
Hide never thought he would know Aizawa’s another side from Shinji. He felt so grateful that he decided to stop and had a chat with the chubby kid.
Then, with low voice Shinji suddenly asked, “Big Bro Hide, can you help me to make peace with Aizawa?”
“Help you to make peace with Aizawa?” Hide casually asked. “Did you have a quarrel with her?”
“Yeah,” Shinji admitted, still in low voice.
“Unfortunately,” Hide said as he recalled a few people he had sent to the next world. “I’m not good at making peace with people I have quarreled with. I don’t think I can help you.”
“But,” Shinji said as he curiously looked at Hide. “Isn’t adult should be good at making peace with people they have quarrel with?”
“Chubby, you give those adults too much of credit.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I believe nine out of ten adults in this world is suck at making peace with people they have quarrel with,” Hide casually said. “And by the way, I’m not an adult yet.”
“…”
Seeing Shinji’s expression suddenly turned dark, Hide immediately added. “It won’t be easy, but if you want to make peace with Aizawa, you should give it a try. Who know if you learn this craft since early age, you will become good at it later.”
“Okay,” Shinji weakly replied.
“As for now, it’s almost dinner time, let me walk you home.”
“Okay.”
After cleaning their table, Hide and Shinji then left. Once they arrived at Shinji’s house, Hide waited until the chubby kid entered his house before going straight home.
---
About 50 meters from Shorimachi’s lodging house, in a rooftop of two-story nursing home, Takeo casually sat. He leaned his back on the guardrail, calmly working with encrypted laptop in his lap. First, he established a connection with database at Nichiko Metro Police. Then, he downloaded the files of every detective in 1st and 2nd Division. His target was only Shorimachi, but to camouflage his intention he downloaded the file of other detectives too.
Next to Takeo, Shizuka also sat and leaned her back on the guardrail. By using a tablet, she casually operated a long-range remote camera she set up on top of tripod, facing straight at Shorimachi’s lodging house. She already sat next to Takeo for about one hour without conversation, and finally she decided to start one.
“Twig,” Shizuka said in low voice, without turning her eyes from tablet in her hands. “Do you get the file?”
“I do,” Takeo calmly said. “But I still have to download the other files to hide our intention.”
“Isn’t it too dangerous to maintain the connection for too long?” Shizuka curiously asked. “They can track you back, right?”
“Actually,” Takeo casually said. “They are trying to silently track me back since 57 minutes ago.”
“Twig.” Shizuka’s eyes widened as she turned her gaze to Takeo. “Don’t you have to cut the connection as soon as they try to track you?”
“Normally, yes.” Takeo then pointed his finger at mini-antenna in front of him. “But that mini antenna and this encrypted laptop provide me enough labyrinths to stall the tracking.”
“Is that mini-antenna really that good?” Shizuka curiously asked.
“Not as good as our net-centric tower, but it’s sufficient.” After a short pause Takeo added, “But, it will leave a trail.”
“What kind of trail?”
“A brute trail that the hack is being done using mil-grade networking, hardware, and tactic.”
“Will that be a problem for us?”
“Nope, as long as I terminate the connection before they manage to triangulate our position,” Takeo said as he shut down the laptop. “And now, they just lost us.”
“Honestly,” Shizuka said before turning her gaze back to her tablet. “I never thought you are a type who loves to show off.”
“This is not from me,” Takeo protested. “Hide asked me to. He wants cyber team from Nichiko Metro believes they are facing an intrusion from former cyber warfare specialist.”
“Why Hide ask you to do that?”
“He said he will explain everything to us after we get our hand on Detective Shorimachi’s file.”
“I see.”
A moment later, Shorimachi popped up on the tablet’s screen. He casually walked over to his lodging house. Wasting no time, Shizuka reached her radio and informed Hide’s about Shorimachi’s arrival.
*****