Devil's Wonderland

Koshima-sensei

Halo Twenty-Two: Koshima-sensei:

Kitano sat at the head of the table.

"Everyone, the final gate will be opened in eight days," he said. "You are welcome to on your prep work for the next round of the game." Those words alone gave the Tandeki Group the permission they had been seeking. Kitano himself had been waiting for this himself. His interns had the same sentiment. In fact, Yayoi, Yuka, and Rumi came by his office this morning. Kitano sat at his desk with notes when there was a knock on his door.

"Enter," he said. He looked up as the door opened. His three female interns scurried inside.

"Ladies," Kitano said. "What can I do for you?" Yayoi stepped forward.

"When are we going to open the gate?" she asked. Her boss raised his eyebrow.

"May I ask why?" he asked.

"We all have been developing the drugs that we want to use on the tadpoles," Yayoi spoke up. "And you know that we have been using the Heartseed to evolve them, right?"

"Yes," Kitano said.

"Well," Yayoi said. "Is it possible that we can give one of the drugs to a particular tadpole in person?" He glanced up at them.

"Do you think you can get close enough?" he asked.

"We can try," Yuka said. Kitano lowered his pen.

"Fair enough," he said.

All three branches of Tandeki's project started to get ready for the next level. Kitano himself had his own preparations to work on.

-Murder Squad-

"Why didn't you finish him then and there?" Yamato asked.

"I figured that it would be better to make him sweat it out before his death," Tomoya said without blinking. Their leader started to tremble with rage.

"We have to kill them all," he hissed.

"I know," the other tadpole said. "But killing him right then and there wasn't going to be enough. He was the one who stood back and let it happen. Those are the worst kind of people. The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality." Yamato frowned and backed off.

"Hey, come on," Shuichi cut in. "We got it done. Kitano probably got our message. And we've got a new alley to help us with our mission. Yamato looked over at Haru. The older man in black sat in the corner, saying nothing.

"You older than us?" Yamato asked. Haru looked up but didn't answer.

"It was lit!" Shuichi said. "He touched one of my needles and it became an instant death timer." He turned to Tomoya as a thought crossed his mind.

"How did you know to do that?" he asked.

"I don't know," the other tadpole admitted. "It just came to me. Almost like I have said it before." He reached into his coat pocket and froze.

"Oh," Tomoya said. "I did take this from Oshiro-san." He took out the doctor's cell phone. Yamato raised his eyebrow.

"What is this?" he asked.

"I figured that he could still be in contact with some of the former staff," Tomoya said.

"Good thinking," Yamato said.

"So how are you going to do this?" Sur asked. The leader shrugged.

"Just go down the list and call," he said. Yamato managed to unlock the phone and go down the phonebook. His crew circled around for a listen. He dialed the first number.