“Do I really need all of this?”
Yami stood in his room not wearing his normal attire. His shirt was replaced with a black suit, and his pants replaced with black suit pants. The tie that was wrapped around his neck was a dark red with stripes dark gray stripes. Reikoku looked ashamed to have Yami as a younger brother.
“Of course, idiot! You’re going to homecoming with the mayor’s daughter! So help me god, if you ruin our family’s image..”
“What image?”
“Besides. You look decent for once, Yami.”
Yami waved his hand at Reikoku as he walked over to his dresser. Out of the top drawer, which was full of white and black socks, as well as many pairs of boxers and athletic shorts, which were obviously mindlessly thrown into the dresser, Yami withdrew a USB device that had no outer casing.
“What’s that, Yami?”
“Oh, this? It’s something that has nothing to do with you.”
Reikoku began to exit his room, but turned to let one more comment slip.
“Oh, and Yami? Don’t get this girl pregnant until you’re out of high school, okay?”
Yami blushed and slammed his door.
“As if I’d do that!”
Yami walked to his desk and set the device on top of it. Yami put on his watch and put his wallet along with his phone in his pocket. Sitting himself in his chair, he inspected the device and began to remember the conversation he had with Posche earlier.
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Yami held the small device in between his pointer finger and thumb, inspecting it carefully.
“What is the point of this, Mr. P?”
“I whipped up a little tool for you to find whatever the mayor has on his computer without the hassle of leaving a digital footprint on his machine.”
“I’m fine with that, but how do you expect to completely delete the trail? Even if it is very obscure, there will always be records of it on his hard drive, even if we delete it multiple times.”
“But what if we fried the hard drive?”
Yami raised an eyebrow.
“What are you implying we do, Mr. P? Send a shock through his entire machine?”
Posche sntached the device away from Yami. He pointed a finger to a black button at the end of the device.
“That is precisely it, Yami. When you are pulling the flashdrive out of his machine, you will press this button down. There are two AA batteries underneath this the device. These two batteries will send the shock through the machine.”
“Won’t it seem kind of obvious that there was tampering on his machine then?”
“I have something planned for that. Just do your job.”
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“YAMI! IT’S 6:30! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!”
Startled by his father’s scream, Yami checked his watch to confirm that it was 6:30. Running down the stairs, Yami slipped on a pair of black dress shoes and nearly fell over as he stumbled out of his house. Nearly sprinting, Yami ran towards Shinki’s house. Heart pounding, Yami began to doubt that he would make it to her house in time. Suddenly, an old, white car appeared from around the corner and stopped next to Yami.
“Yami! What’s up?”
Yami turned to see who was talking to him, and as he did, his eyes widened. A smile as large as the one Yami had would be impossible to hide.
“Nothing much, bro!”
Ai Shinpai smiled at his younger brother.
“Hop in! I’ll chauffeur you and your date!”
High fiving Ai, Yami opened the door to the backseat. Securing his seat belt, Yami began to converse with his brother.
“It’s been a while! How long has it been? A year?”
Ai chuckled.
“Yeah, I guess so. How’s things been going at home?”
“Dad is still a prick, Reikoku is still a bitch.”
“Hey, don’t be like that. They’re still family, ya know.”
“Yeah…”
“Anyways, What about school? This is your freshman year, right?”
Yami stared out of the window, watching the scenery pass by.
“Yeah. It’s been pretty fun, so far.”
“Besides all of that, you’re like a weed! You’ve gotten taller since the last time I saw you! I bet, with your handsomeness, this girl is going to be really pretty.”
Yami cheeks turned red.
Stolen story; please report.
“I guess she is.”
As Ai parked the car on the side of the road, he looked at the manor that lay before them.
“Uh, Yami? You sure you have the right address?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? I’m taking the mayor's daughter.”
Ai gulped.
“Yami! Why didn’t you tell me?! This car is in no shape for that kind of authority!”
“It’s still better than walking.”
Yami got out of the car and walked up to the manor. Knocking on the door caused a butler to open it.
“Ah, Master Yami, I presume?”
“M-Master?”
“Yes. I have been informed you have arrived for m’lady’s presence?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Please, Sir, come in! I will have a cup of tea fashioned for you immediately!”
The butler led Yami into the main hall of the manor. Sitting himself on a chair, Yami straightened his tie.
“No need for that, Sir. I’ll see to it that the tailor presents to you a tie that can rival no other.”
“That’s okay, I’m fine with this one. Thank you.”
“I’m getting so overwhelmed. I knew that the mayor held a lot of authority, but this is ridiculous! I hope that Shinki doesn’t look at me at ditches me.”
“Good afternoon, Yami!”
Yami gulped as he turned around to face a staircase. Walking down it was Shinkai, wearing a silver dress that barely reached her ankles.
“Holy shit. She’s not even wearing anything too fancy and she’s beautiful.”
Shinkai blushed and moved her eyes away from Yami’s.
“H-How do I look, Yami? I tried to not dress as though as I was attending my one of my father’s parties, but…”
Yami blinked hard.
“Shinkai, you’re beautiful!”
Shinkai looked into Yami’s eyes again, causing them to both stare into each other’s eyes.
“M’lady, I believe it is time for your departure.”
“R-Right! Thank you, Albert.”
Quickly walking down the remaining distance of the staircase, Shinkai grabbed Yami’s hand.
“Come on! We’re gonna be late!”
Yami was practically dragged by Shinkai as they exited the manor.
“Be careful, M’lady! Protect her, Master Yami!”
Shutting the door behind them, Shinkai smiled at Yami.
“So, what’s the plan?”
Yami looked at the time on his watch.
“Well, he can still go get something to eat, but we’ll be a little late to homecoming if we do.”
“I’m fine with it. Let’s go!”
As they walked to the road, Yami began to open the car door. Shinkai looked at him confused.
“You have your license, Yami?”
“No, but my brother is going to drive us. Say hi, Ai.”
Ai looked out of the car, looking like a nervous stray.
“H-Hello, Madame! I am Ai Shinpai! A pleasure to make your acquaintance!”
Shinkai chuckled.
“Hello! My name is Shinkai, but you can call me Shinki!”
“O-Okay.”
Yami held the door open for Shinkai.
“Go ahead. We need to hurry up if we want to be less late than we already are.”
“Sure.”
Ai drove the car away after Yami and Shinkai were inside.
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Music could be heard miles away as Shitto and Rikai walked down a sidewalk towards the school.
“Hey, Shitto, do you know where Yami is?”
“Nah. Knowing him, though, he probably didn’t want to come to homecoming. He hates stuff like this.”
“I see.”
“Maybe that’s why he didn’t ask me. I guess I’m okay with that…”
“If you were wondering why he didn’t ask you out, that’s only part of the answer.”
Rikai looked at Shitto, who was still looking towards the school. Feeling her gaze, Shitto looked at her with annoyance.
“What? You know the other part of the reason.”
“That’s right. I’ve been ignoring him recently. He probably thinks that I don’t want to be his friend anymore…”
“But don’t get the wrong idea, Rikai. He still wants to be friends with you.”
“Thanks, Shitto.”
“Besides…”
Shitto grinned at Rikai.
“You’re gonna have to work harder if you want him all to yourself!”
Rikai punched Shitto’s shoulder.
“Hey! That hurt!”
“You shouldn’t have said that!”
Rikai looked down at the sidewalk.
“I hate to say it, but you are right, Shitto. I DO need to try harder if I want him to be my friend.”
“Hey! I’m just giving you a hard time! Liven up a bit, we’re almost at the school.”
Rikai looked up from the sidewalk to see the school greeting them. Handing the supervisors their tickets, Rikai and Shitto walked into the cafeteria to see that the tables were displaced into the hallway in order to make room for the student body that was now dancing.
“Hey! Rikai! Come over here!”
Rikai turned her head to see a clump of girls waving at her.
“Hey! Shitto! Get your ass over here, man!”
Shitto turned his head to see a clump of guys waving at him. Looking at one another, Rikai and Shitto simultaneously spoke.
“Sorry, those are my friends!”
Both laughing, Shitto waved goodbye.
“See ya, Rikai!”
“Bye, Shitto!”
Rikai walked to her group of friends. Greeting all of them, Rikai began to converse with them.
“So did you come with Shitto, Rikai?”
Rikai shook her head and waved her hand no.
“No, Shitto and I aren’t like that. We just live near each other and decided it’d be safer to walk here together.”
“I figured. You have a thing for Yami anyways, right? You’ll get him next year, girl.”
“If he decides to come, that is.”
The girl looked confused.
“What do ya mean? He’s right over there!”
Rikai turned her head in the direction that the girl had pointed her finger. Pushing people out of her way, Rikai slowly made her way through the crowd. After breaking through one final chunk, Rikai saw Yami and Shinkai together and tried to call out to them.
“Hey! I thought you weren’t coming, Yam-”
Rikai became frozen as Shinkai wrapped her arms around Yami’s neck and began to slow dance with him. Turning Yami’s back towards Rikai, Shinkai looked Rikai in the eyes and smiled. Overcome with emotion, Rikai ran back through the crowd.
“You hear something, Shinki?”
“Some girl just had her heart broken, that’s all!”
“I feel bad for her.”
----------------------------------------
An hour passed, and homecoming was still in full swing. Yami looked at his watch.
“Alright. I should be in the clear to break into his office.”
“Hey, Shinki. I gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“No problem! I’ll be waiting for your return!”
Casually walking out of the cafeteria, Yami turned down the hall and proceeded to walk to the office where the mayor’s computer was. Surveying the area one last time to make sure nobody was in sight, Yami lock picked the door with a bobby pin and walked to the mayor’s computer. Booting it up, Yami continued to look for a passersby, but fortunately, there was no one. Plugging the device into the computer displayed a button on screen that asked “Scan files?” Hitting “Yes”, Yami sat patiently as the device copied nearly every file from the computer. Noticing that a dialogue box had appeared, stating “The process is complete!”, Yami went to press the button on the device. Before he could do so, a flashlight shined into the office. Looking at the light, he saw two policemen pointing at him.
“You in there! Come out of there with your hands up!”
Knowing his only option was to his the button, Yami did as Posche. The device made a sound, like a defibrillator charging up, then a snap came from the machine as the screen went blank. Suddenly, all of the lights in the hallway went out. The music that was vibrating the entire school had become silent. The power was cut.
“Thanks, Mr. P!”
Seeing this golden opportunity, Yami took advantage of the lack of light to sneak out of an opposite door leading into the cafeteria. Sneaking back into the crowd, Yami paid no attention to the policemen screaming at him to return back to the office. Grabbing Shinkai’s arm, Yami looked her in the eyes.
“Shinki. Are you alright?”
“Y-Yes? What’s the matter, Yami?”
Yami let out a sigh.
“I got worried when the power went out, so I came back immediately to see if your were fine.”
“I’m happy you did, Yami. I was missing you.”
Shinkai embraced Yami as they hugged.
A tear rolled down Rikai’s face.