Suddenly, Kazutaka saw a ray of hope. According to what chief had said, they would be meeting up with a guy who could possibly open the attaché case once they got to Tokyo. That guy must be a professional lock-picker. He felt great relief that it didn’t look like he was going to get on the bus to heaven just yet. It would be best to remain cooperative without getting his captors agitated.
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Once he relaxed, Kazutaka thought of the Cup-o-Noodles he had left at his apartment. Then his stomach growled. Come to think of it, all he’d eaten today were some sandwiches in the morning. He hadn’t eaten anything else all afternoon. Kazutaka began to feel hungry and dizzy. Being blindfolded, Kazutaka didn’t really know if he was feeling dizzy and swaying or not. He might just be feeling the motion of a moving car. But Kazutaka knew he was definitely hungry.
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Kazutaka thought of what he would have normally been doing. He would be writing this month’s activity reports in his room, which needed to be distributed to the board of education and parents. Mika sometimes would call him in the middle of night. Her parents didn’t get along well and Mika would call to say, "I’m scared of going home, Mr. Yui." He wondered if she was okay tonight. There was also Hitoshi-kun. He sometimes lost his self-control and had a tendency to stir up trouble on purpose. Kazutaka wondered how Hitoshi-kun was doing. And then there was Naomi. Her mother would sometimes call to say, "Naomi hasn’t come home yet. It’s very late, and I’m worried." Kazutaka began to worry about the children. He was being taken to a place they couldn’t reach him. He began to feel more worried than afraid.
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Here we go, Ren thought to himself as he picked up his car keys.
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The call was from Yuri Fuwa. If he needed help, Ren would be there no matter what, no matter where. True, Yuri had dumped him in the past. True, Ren was still a lonely single man because he hadn’t recovered from that shock, but none of that mattered now.
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Ren more or less knew what Fuwa and the other members had been planning for a year now. Ren had made a high-speed revolution metal cutter for them about a month ago. If Ren was needed now, the ”something” Fuwa wanted must be inside an attaché case made of some kind of metal that the metal cutter couldn’t cut. Neither the time nor the place was clear, but Ren guessed the overall picture. The place mentioned on the phone was just referred to as "a pier," but it must be a ferry pier at Tokyo Bay.
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Handcuffs, attaché case, remote control lock...none of which the metal cutter could touch. That meant sensor parts, a charge-coupled device, an electromagnetic scanner, a personal computer, an infrared generator, and batteries would be called for. Ren gathered the instruments and tools and tossed them into the car. He turned back to the Buddhist altar and apologized. Since Ren was about to take part in an illegal activity, he had to clasp his hands before the altar to tell his father in advance. His father in the picture was glaring at Ren with a stern look, but uttered no words of condemnation. “Sorry, Dad. Just one last time.” Ren locked the front door, got in the car, and turned on the ignition. The car carrying Fuwa and his team members must be moving north on the Tōmei Expressway. They would be at the ferry pier in a couple of hours. There had been only the one time that Ren had participated as a driver. They had used a ferry that time also. It was convenient to travel in an R.V. because they could leave the equipment and tools hidden inside. R.V.'s were also useful for hiding people as well as for providing a space for sleep. Using a ferry to travel, to provide time for the team to rest, and time to adjust the plan is indeed a good idea, Ren thought to himself. Fuwa and his boyfriend were protecting the health and public security of Japan along the waterfront. They pretended to be buyers of the nightmare white powder coming from abroad. They then discarded the goods. Sometimes, the deals were worth millions of yen. They needed funds to cover those costs. That’s where Fuwa came in. Ren was fuzzy on the details, but it seemed that in order to make the transaction payment the last time, they'd retrieved jewelry stolen from a museum in Southeast Asia. When the thieves brought the stolen goods to a jeweler in Japan, Fuwa had switched them with counterfeits. Then Bud West took over. He took the real jewelry somewhere in Europe and sold it for euros. The euros were then exchanged for the illicit powder somewhere off the Port of Yokohama. The white powder was dumped into the ocean off Izu Peninsula. The fish in the area may have gotten high, but it was better than having the dangerous drugs being used by people. It would have helped wreck lives and profited criminals. It was a dangerous job. But as long as there is a demand, the powder will keep coming from across the ocean. Sellers did not care how buyers would use the goods as long as they got their money. The authorities conducted investigations to capture the importers, but there was always somebody new. Bud thought it best to understand the route, buy it out, and discard it. There was something to be said for that.
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Fuwa was very sharp, like a precision machine, and talented with top level skills that benefited a thief. He'd told Ren last year that these big jobs were getting to be stressful at his age. Fuwa was only 35, just ten years older than Ren. Fuwa had always had a uniquely sophisticated manner even when he was much younger. He just looked classy somehow. Ren had been crazy about Fuwa at one point. Ren could still remember the day Fuwa came to his factory for the first time. Fuwa had wanted a special order. He'd truly been a notch above the pack. It had been love at first sight. Ren Atobe had been 16 years old then. After several orders, Fuwa noticed how Ren felt about him. They started to have a relationship beyond business. The sweet moments Fuwa shared with him as a couple were still shining milestones in Ren’s mind. Even after their breakup, Ren had sincerely wished for Fuwa’s happiness. Retiring from the front lines to earn living in a part time job would be safer and more peaceful. Hopefully, Bud would put an end to this risky business and follow Fuwa into retirement so that they could lead a quiet life. With those thoughts, Ren traveled east on the Metropolitan Expressway.
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Kazutaka had not been a highly valued member of the teaching staff while teaching at the public middle school. Kazutaka had been harshly criticized with claims being made that he had compromised himself in order to appeal to the students. It had taken three years full of trial and error for him. Student reactions to his methods varied but his classes never got out of hand just because Kazutaka was deemed to have a soft touch. Some students even liked his laid-back personality, saying things like “Yui-sensei is spacey, which is very comforting.”
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The deterioration of public education had been a topic of public interest for quite some time, but at least the classes Kazutaka was in charge of had never became violent or chaotic. Kazutaka had thought a teacher like himself might be needed to provide an oasis of calm. That was why he'd applied for the “Nagomi Kyōshitsu” or “comforting classroom” program that was designed for school-phobic children. His predecessor was just finishing up a three year term at that time and his application had been approved. Since that April, the Nagomi Kyōshitsu held inside the City Library had been Kazutaka’s job.
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At this time of year, eighth graders requested career counseling. So Kazutaka often worked at home as well, even on weekends. There was a student whose only middle school attendance had been during the entrance ceremony, yet the student wanted to go on to high school. Kazutaka had been preparing the necessary paperwork earlier in the afternoon when Shīno rang him.
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"Yui, can you do me a favor? I’ve got some questionable goods. I want you to take them to the police for me."
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Shīno had taken over his family's jewelry business after graduating from college. As young as he was, Shīno was owner and president of a jewelry store chain that had several branches. When Shīno needed to transport highly priced valuables from the main store to a branch or from one of the branches to a vault at the bank, Kazutaka often helped him guard the attaché case by riding along inside one of the security company’s vehicles. Shīno sometimes also rode along, and still other times, some of his clerks would.