HA3 4.3 – Someone from the Past
Hide didn’t have MMA class today, but lot of works was waiting for him in the workshop. So, he left his house two hours earlier than usual. However, only a few minutes after he exited his house, his tail already in his six. He carefully followed him to subway station and boarded the same train with him.
‘What a committed tail,’ Hide sourly complained. ‘Why in the world Paolo send a pro to tail a high school kid.’
In the end, Hide could do nothing other than trying his best to shake his tail off. But before that, he wanted to identify him. He was truly curious about his identity. And so, with casual step he got off the train at Manabu Subway Station.
The station was almost empty, but even in such environment the tail was skillful enough to hide his present. He didn’t make clumsy move that would alert his target, came too close, or letting his target got clear field of view to his face. Therefore, he didn’t lost Hide’s sight but Hide couldn’t clearly saw his face.
Fortunately, Hide had a trick to deal with such careful tail. He swiftly went to the rest room and a smile bloomed in his lips as he found it was empty. Wasting no time, he made a quick work to install several nano surveillance cameras before entering one of toilet cubicles. After that, all he had to do was turning off his smartphone.
Hide believed his tail was running a GPS track on his smartphone. After all, he worked for Paolo and Paolo was capable such feat. Therefore, if he turned off his smartphone, his tail would definitely enter the restroom to confirm his present directly, and he was correct.
Only a few seconds after he turned off his smartphone, his tailed entered the restroom. He wore different jacket and cap, but Hide recognized his posture and backpack. Then, he got a clear and close up view to his face.
‘What the…’
Hide’s heart skipped a beat as he recognized the man. He was Naoto Mashima. When Hide joined SDF, he already became central figure in army sniper reserve detachment. This unit was on par with 1st SFG in funding priority, strategic value, and mission expectation. It’s just that they received almost no public exposure.
Maybe, it was because they were categorized as support element under army general staff HQ, which was being lump together as rear echelon mutherpucker by frontline unit. Moreover, the detachment never put their skill in public display. When there was a PR campaign to show that SDF used the tax money properly, shooter from 1st SFG or other elite unit would perform the show for precision shooting.
In summary, covering army sniper reserve detachment didn’t offer enough appeal to attract public attention and boost the rating. As for Hide, he knew for sure that among army elite units this detachment had the hardest qualification and assessment program.
Their personnel were fixed at 47 long-range shooters, with an addition of a colonel as CO and a captain as XO. Their selection was based on by-invitation-only. When they had empty slot and they wanted you to compete for it, they would send you an invitation.
The selection for new recruit took place every 3-4 years, but it was not rare they would hold it 2-3 times in row because all candidates in previous class failed the assessment. They also never gave a failed candidate a second chance, while even 1st SFG would let a failed candidate to try the assessment for a second time.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Let alone becoming a central figure in such unit, even their new recruit already carried lot of pressure and heavy expectation in their shoulder. Yet, Naoto was very famous for his carefree attitude. However, Hide hated him with passion because in army advance sniper training Naoto bullied him like there was no tomorrow.
‘What a small world,’ Hide muttered before letting out a sigh.
It seemed people he encountered in his past live started to appear in his current life one by one. Hide then waited until Naoto left the restroom before packing the nano surveillance cameras.
When he exited the rest room, he found Naoto was still faithfully waited for him, and he immediately tailed him as soon as he entered the underground walkway. Fortunately, the subway station was 5 km away from Chikara Tower, and the underground walkway was tricky like a maze.
It would give Hide lot of hide and seek opportunity. At the same time, he knew for sure that Naoto had no knowledge about the underground network in Nichiko. And so, with ease he shook Naoto off from his six, arrived at the workshop through the hidden lift, and started the work right away.
Other than his regular firearm drill and physical exercise, Hide had lot of things need to be done. He had to make new hand guard, pistol grip, and butt stock for M4 PDW and MP5 PDW. He also had to build a climbing wall.
Each work would take lot of effort and time, but Hide calmly welcomed it. With a well-structured schedule, he believed he would finish everything sooner or later. All he had to do was doing one piece of work at a time constantly, and sooner or later he would finish them all.
---
“Where the fuck the exit!!” Naoto vexingly muttered as he stood in the middle of dark and small intersection.
It was already 175 minutes since he lost Hide, and now he was stuck in the underground walkway because he couldn’t find the exit. After taking a deep breath a few times, Naoto then took out his smartphone. Unfortunately, there was no reception.
He then took out the high-power radio he got from Paolo. He immediately deployed its antenna and was connected to Paolo right away.
“How is your tailing?”
[Nothing noteworthy.] Paolo casually replied. [Takeo and a girl from his class did physical exercise in the base of Uruba Hill. It’s standard package with intent to build his foundation.
The two are pretty much hardworking kids, and after they continued their training in the school backyard, I retreated.]
“Did you run background check on the girl?”
[I did. Her name is Shizuka Oda, two times karate national champion, and based on the chat in her classmate’s smartphone she is Takeo’s girlfriend.]
“Are you sure you find nothing suspicious about her?”
[Let’s see, a few months ago, his sparring partner, a medical student, was being declared a missing person. Initially, metro police put her in list of suspect for murder, but there was not enough motive or evidence to build a case.
Not to mention, the med student had pissed off a few people he shouldn’t mess with. His parent used their money and connection to deescalate the situation, but who know if it was not enough.
And do you remember about the raid on Kamui Finance I told you last night?]
“Yeah.”
[After you go home, I did another digging and found that a few days before the raid Shizuka borrowed money from Kamui.]
“A missing person and a sophisticated raid, these two are not circumstances that normally linger around a high school girl,” Naoto said in a drop dead serious tone.
[I know, but without solid proof it will go only as far as guesswork from circumstantial evidence.]
“What about her social circle? Does she make contact with people who have the means and motive to pull the raid on Kamui Finance?”
[Nope, she has only ordinary people in her social circle. And a while back, she did work in Kenzo Bowling, but she didn’t establish connection to any underground figure.]
“I see, but I think you need to dig deeper on this Shizuka girl.”
[I will. Now, what about Hide? Do you find something suspicious about him?]
“I lost him,” Naoto blatantly admitted.
[How?]
“I followed him into underground walkway connected to Manabu Subway Station. A few minutes later, the sneaky bastard just disappeared into thin air.”
[Did you made contact with him, came too close, or accidentally tickled him so he made evasive measure by entering underground walkaway?]
“Nope, and maybe I am wrong, but I get an impression that underground walkway is part of his habitual route.”
[I see. It’s his way to check he has a tail or not by taking uncommon route he know well.]
“Yeah.”
[Okay, thanks for the hard work, and see you this eve---.]
“Wait…. Can you help me find the nearest exit?”
[Huh? Are you saying you lost your way right now?]
“Sort of,” Naoto calmly admitted.
[What the… Don’t land-based spear tips in this country have to attend mandatory training on how to navigate and use urban underground network in analog mode?]
“It’s mandatory only for the folks who take urban warfare specialization. My specialization is jungle and mountain precision shooting, so I skip it.”
[I see. Give me four minutes, and then ping me three times in three seconds interval. I will use my network to triangulate your location.]
“Roger.”
A moment later, Naoto made another cursed when Paolo told him that he was 8 km away from Manabu Subway Station. After that, Paolo guided him to the nearest exit and it was only 200 meters away from his position.
*****