'Thinking'
"Speaking"
*** Time passing or scene change
Mission: Nerima Part 6
"Would all members of the NWC please report to the front foyer... All members of the NWC to the front foyer, please..."
Eyes lifted from their work at the first words coming over the loudspeaker in the middle of morning classes. In various classrooms throughout the school, seven individuals closed their books and headed for the school's main entrance, with a brief sidetrip to dispose of their school things along the way. Five curious sets of eyes observed their departure.
When the last members of the Nerima Wrecking Crew arrived in the front foyer, they found Ranma, Akane, and their usual local law enforcement contact studying a map.
"Missing kid," Akane explained briefly to the rest of the group. "Three year old boy, riding a trike in the park when his sitter lost track of him. He's wearing green overalls and a white sweater, and a blue, hooded coat. His mom's an executive director for one of the big colonial firms; they're here visiting friends on vacation. The sitter wasted an hour looking for him herself before reporting what happened. He's been gone almost three hours now. Current assumption is lost."
"Mousse, you up to putting in some air time?" Ranma asked. Receiving a nod in response, he drew a series of circles on the map. "This is where the kid was last seen. This," he indicated the next ring, "is the area that the cops are checking, but even on his own they think he could be as far out as here." Moving to the outermost ring, he continued, "But I'm betting he could have even made it as far as this in three hours. Since the cops are concentrating on the inner area, I think we should do a brief check of it, hit some spots they might overlook, like under the canal bridges, then concentrate on the outlying areas.
"Akane, Ukyo, you two take the photos that were supplied and talk to people in the immediate area that the sitter lost him in, then work your way out in a spiral. Kodachi, take the rooftops and cover the area from this canal over to this road here. Shampoo, the same on the other side of the canal. Mousse, do a fly-by on the water areas first, we find more young kids near the water than I like to think about...
"I'll take this section here, and Ryoga - gimme your GPS for a minute," the group's defacto leader quickly programmed in the settings for his directionally-challenged friend, "- there's your search area.
"Check in with Kasumi every half hour, on the usual staggered schedule. Everybody got their communicators?" Receiving a series of nods in response, he asked, "Any questions, suggestions, observations? No? Okay, then let's go."
***
"Akane Tendo and Ukyo Kuonji are missing. They left when the 'NWC' members were summoned to the foyer during second period," Wufei reported as he joined Heero, Trowa, and Quatre for lunch.
"That means that everyone who was part of the group that Hibiki referred to as the Nerima Wrecking Crew is missing. Clearly, they must be the 'NWC'," Heero observed, frowning slightly. "However, that does not answer the question of why they were called out of class today, or where they went."
"Perhaps Duo will know," Trowa suggested calmly. "They seem to have welcomed him into their circle."
Heero acknowledged Trowa's comment with a noncommittal "Hn," his frown turning to a dark scowl. By mutual agreement, they had left Duo alone to cool down two nights ago. Yesterday morning, he'd been gone before anyone went looking for him, had avoided them all day at school, and had gone straight to his room afterwards with the muttered excuse that he had a lot of work to do. He'd obviously still been upset, so they'd left him alone. But this morning, he had once again been gone from the house before anyone even knew that he was up. None of them had seen him until after they had arrived at the school. He and several of the 'NWC' group had dashed into the classroom at the last minute, laughing and out of breath. There had been no opportunity to talk to him before classes began, but Heero had hoped that he would get a chance to finally try and smooth things over during lunch.
That was going to be a little difficult, since Duo was once again not going to be joining them. Instead, he was taking a working lunch while Ms Hinako reviewed his homework from the previous night. It was a sensible use of time - but, under the circumstances, Heero couldn't help but wonder whether it had more to do with avoiding him and the other pilots than anything else.
***
Just before the last class of the day, a group of slightly tired, slightly dirty, but very contented, martial artists slipped back into their classrooms. The boy had been located finally, even further out than Ranma had expected and well beyond the police search area. The youngster had been convinced that he only needed to peddle a few more blocks to find his Grandma's house. It seemed that he had slept through the entire shuttle trip to Earth and didn't realize he wasn't anywhere near his Grandma's house back on L4.
Ryoga had called Kasumi to confirm that the child had been found before he and Mousse had roof-hopped the weary boy - and his trike - back to turn him over to their law enforcement contact. Then they'd all hightailed it back to school.
Tempting though it might be to hang around and witness the boy's reunion with his family, the members of the Wrecking Crew were always very careful to avoid any chance of landing in the media spotlight.
***
"Where's Duo?" Heero demanded sharply as Quatre exited the school alone.
"He's meeting with Ms Hinako," Quatre answered.
"How long did he expect the meeting to last?"
"He - didn't exactly say. But he isn't planning to be home for supper."
Disappointed, Heero discarded his half-formed plan to order in pizza, one of Duo's favourite foods, as a way to show Duo that he wanted to fix things between them.
Sensing that there was more, Trowa prodded gently, "And?"
Quatre hesitated a moment, knowing that Heero wasn't going to like the rest of what Duo had said. "Actually, he said that we shouldn't wait up for him."
Trowa grimaced slightly, not entirely surprised. Duo was living up to his motto. Rather than pretend that everything was fine, he was simply avoiding the situation.
"What? Maxwell knows that we're having nightly briefings," Wufei snapped irritably. He couldn't believe that his teammate would blow off his job so lightly.
Drawing a careful breath, Heero said, "But I did tell him that we didn't need his help with the mission right now." His words were a reminder to himself as much as Wufei. It was his fault that Duo was avoiding them, not Duo's.
Quatre nodded unhappily. That was exactly what Duo had rather bitterly pointed out in response to his own cautious inquiry. "He's still a bit... upset... about that, I'm afraid. I think we just need to give him a little more time to cool down." Duo didn't get angry too often and, when he did, he usually got over it fairly quickly if nothing happened to stir him up again before then.
Usually. But, remembering the hurt bitterness in Duo's tone, Quatre couldn't help but wonder whether this time would prove to be the unfortunate exception to the rule.
***
"Is everyone clear on their assignments?" Ms Hinako asked as the small study group gathered up their books. They all had a few chapters of history to be studied, but that was where any similarity in their homework ended. She'd tried to be sure that each one understood the new concepts in tonight's assignments - vector algebra for Ranma, Japanese grammar for Shampoo, Mendelian genetics for Duo, and Newton's Laws for Ryoga - but it never hurt to double-check.
A chorus of assurances rang out in response to her question.
"Good," she beamed happily. It really was a treat teaching students who genuinely wanted to learn. "I won't be available tomorrow during lunch or after classes, but I will be here early in the morning, if you need to talk to me. Have a good evening!"
"See ya, Ms Hinako," Ranma responded, waving as he started out the door. Ryoga and Shampoo followed close behind him.
Duo left the room more slowly, debating whether to go back to the house and just sneak in through the attic window so that he wouldn't have to deal with the others, or whether to go find somewhere else to study. He really didn't feel like being alone, but he didn't want to be around the other pilots, either. Maybe... Breaking into a run, he managed to catch up to the others just as they exited the building. "Hey, guys, wait up a sec!" he called.
Exchanging curious looks, the three martial artists halted outside the school doors and waited for Duo. "What's up?" Ranma asked as their new classmate joined them.
"Uh, I was just wondering whether maybe you'd know if Ukyo could use a little extra help tonight?"
"She'll be closing up for the night by now," Ryoga said, shaking his head.
"But Cat Café stays open late, and can always use an extra pair of hands," Shampoo volunteered. Ranma, Ukyo, and the others who had spent time with Duo in the mornings had already made it clear that they liked him. It would be good for the rest of the Wrecking Crew to spend some time getting to know him as well. Then, they would have a better idea of just how far to admit him into their circle. "Meal and tips for work. Help each other with homework during slow times and after closing." Ukyo had commented that, while she didn't think he'd had any experience in the restaurant business before, he was a quick study and a hard worker. Unlike some friends who'd volunteered to help in the past, he'd more than earned his breakfast.
Duo grinned. "Sounds like a good deal to me." A very good deal. Food, companionship, and some good, honest labour to keep him too busy to brood.
It was definitely one hell of a lot better than spending the evening alone again, hiding out in his attic room and feeling sorry for himself.
TBC...
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