A light gray smoke billowed from his mouth as the cigarette hung loosely between his lips, he held a pair of binoculars up to his eyes and surveyed the two structures in front of him. The billowing white, canvas-style tops of the twin domes swayed ominously in his viewfinder. He frowned as he pulled the binoculars down and tapped them on the short iron fence that separated the property from the back road. He took the butt from his mouth and tossed it onto the ground and stomped on it with his boot. In the past half hour, nothing interesting had happened aside from the ten school busses that suddenly showed up and drove into two adjacent openings that burrowed into the gravel covered ground. Behind the surveyor was a fancy black car that was parked just behind him, and on the side of the back road. He glanced back at it for a moment before tightening his gloves, and readjusting his black backpack.
The young man was none other than, Toru Senba, the one and only son of the head executive of the possibly the largest chemical company in the world. He was no older than 18 years old, with short black hair that was well kept, and wild brown eyes which were covered by a pair of orange tinted goggles. At a glance he looked like he was some kind of soldier, or some kind of mercenary who did off hand dirty jobs. The black, bullet proof vest was strapped over his white sweatshirt, and at his side he carried a dangerous looking handgun, as well a couple of clips of ammunition. The blue jeans were common among teenagers, as well as common running shoes, which were colored black and matched well with the rest of his outfit. It's almost time. He thought going to back to the car to put the binoculars back. Nobody would have guessed that he was the son of the head executive at the Senba Organization just by looking at him. The boy had lived in his father's shadow ever since they had moved to Stadweld to ensure that the company's influence was absolute over the area. Though in living in that strict shadow, Toru had become his own man. Despite his slightly thug-like attitude Toru was good at making plans. He was careful, and he liked to watch things as they played out. All of the secrets his father had kept, Toru had acquired them on his own accord. [An act which would have Old Senba in a horrible rage]. Though Toru was under the impression now that his old man had fallen off his rocker, and was currently unable to make any decisions himself. His conclusion had reached it's pinnacle just a few days prior...
~A few days ago~
"How was work dad?" He asked in a slightly sarcastic tone, looking up from his gourmet meal, eying the graying man who was sitting at the end of the table adjusting his napkins. The man had a look of slight distaste as he scooted up to the table. It had been commonplace for Toru to inquire about the day of work his father sometime had to endure. Lately the company had been undergoing quite a rift between two separate factions, and his father had to work late just to keep them from crossing the line. The days had been long and hard, and when the tired old man returned home looking smug, his son was always ready to ask how it went. "Work is going well, son. Now eat your dinner." His usually commanding voice wasn't uncommon, but Toru had never gotten such a simple answer, and especially since it was such a blatant lie. "Nothing exciting huh, well I guess some days just pass right by." He replied taking a forkful of food and bringing it to his mouth. Are we being watched? Maybe I should ask him in our own native tongue ha? He thought looking up at his father and down at his fork. I wonder if we'll ever go back there? "Why don't we ever go back to Japan?" He asked in Japanese, and there was a long pause as the man brought his own fork to his mouth and as he chewed slowly Toru watched him carefully. The man grunted something incoherent for a moment. "Are you...alright?" It was uncommon for his old man to take so long to answer such a simple question that even Toru was becoming concerned. He had continued to speak in Japanese, and the aging man looked at his son confused, and then suddenly he snapped. "Eat your dinner." He ordered in English. Toru then stood up. "Do you not...understand?" He asked in English and the man stood up as well. "I told you to eat!" He commanded. For a moment Toru considered sitting down for a moment. "What is the password?" He asked in Japanese. This would seal the deal. It was to be only asked when one was in danger of his life, and it had been established by the two of them ever since Toru was a child. If his father did not answer the question within ten seconds, would mean he was either in danger, or was not himself.
"What kind of imposter are you?" Toru smirked, reaching to his side where the gun was most oftentimes kept. He pointed it at the man's chest. For a minute the man seemed to grow even more angry, and then he blanked out, his expression changed to a bit of bewildered fear. "Y-y-you wouldn't shout your own father now would you?" The voice was his fathers, but the soft scared tone betrayed who he was. Toru advanced with a smile rising on his face. "Oh yeah? I've been yearning for the head company for a long time. You let mom go back to Japan, but you insisted I learn English here, to 'follow in your footsteps' and so I vowed that one day I'd be the head of the company, and I'd live wherever I wanted. You're losing your edge if you didn't see this coming! I'll do whatever it takes for that power, even if it means doing you in!" The sneering face was nothing more than an act to scare the strange impostor who was poising at his father, presumably, and the man knocked his chair over as he attempted to retreat. "H-help! Help! My son is trying to kill me!" He screamed, toppling over onto the floor. "You're wasting your breath. You know, I sent the maid out, so it's just us. Father son time!" He laughed, firing a bullet just to the side of the crawling man. He marched him towards the far hall closest in the guest room. "Y-you're insane! don't you care about your inheritance? You won't get away with this, the police--"
"The police? Now I know for sure that you aren't my father." He laughed out loud, as a thrilling sensation began to well inside of his stomach. "We own the police! The only one who would even think of doing us in is the Mafia, and we have too much responsibility in this community to be simply taken out. I don't know how you managed to look just like him, but I guess it doesn't matter, either way..." He trailed off aiming at the man's forehead, watching the beads of sweat pour down his face and off his chin. "So why would you infiltrate a Japanese man's house and not even speak Japanese?" His eyes narrowed as he interrogated the frightened man who was supposed to be his father, but in Toru's mind, he was someone completely different. "I- I-do speak Japanese!" He replied in the language. "Too late!" Toru howled rushing forward and the man cowered for fear that he would be shot and killed, but instead the boy slammed the butt of the gun into his head, knocking him unconscious. "Ha. I bet you never would have guessed that the son would knock out his own father. For a long time you've been acting strange. I'm not sure where my real father is, or if you really are him and got manipulated somehow...but either way it's best to take you out of the picture..." He stated, proceeding to gag the man and drag him into the closest. He threw in a few water bottles and some food and then locked the door from the outside. "There you go! When you wake up, you'll have to tend to yourself for a while in till I get to the bottom of all of this." He said putting the gun away and clapping his hands as if he had just completed a hard day's work. "Well now it's time to clear the table, dinner's already over."
He didn't think twice about his actions, but he was still uncertain of what he should do next. In till the next day when the doorbell rang. It was a familiar sound, as there were plenty of business associates who came over to drop papers off for his father, and oftentimes Toru would steal them and read them before handing them off to the executive. Today it seemed no different as he opened door to find five men in suits outside. However, he had never seen any of these men before, and in his mind they looked like mere grunts, as opposed to the usual appearance of a manager or higher ranked staff member. Could it be related to the faction war? Are they here to roughen us up? He thought as he looked them over. They stared at each other for a while, and then the first one reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Is your father around? I need to personally deliver this." He stated with unusual coldness. Toru shook his head. "My father's unconscious upstairs at the moment, you'll have to come back later." He replied quietly. "Unconscious?" The suited man asked looking quizzical. "Yes you see he likes to whip me into shape sometimes..." he smiled for a moment. "Well it looks like I got a move on him, and now he's out cold. But, there's no need to be alarmed gentlemen, I'm sure he'll be ready to work again once he recovers." Toru's charisma was undeniable, yet the men lingered outside, a strange murmur echoed between them. His gun was concealed under his long sleeved jacket, and his hand instinctively wrapped around the grip of the handle. "Shouldn't you bring him to the hospital?" The man finally asked sounding a bit concerned. "Are you insane?" Toru's voice rose as he unsheathed the gun and pointed it at the man. The man backed away. The same wicked smile from the evening before shimmered onto the young man's face. "Who the hell are you?!" He demanded angrily. "Anyone would know that my father wouldn't need to go to the hospital. We have a family doctor who takes care of shit like that." He was almost yelling. "Over a simple concussion?! Get real man!" He kept the gun steadily pointed at the front most of the suited men. "What? Aren't you going a little far over--?" The man asked, when one of the men hbehind him shook his head. "The boy obviously saw through us." He said pulling out his own gun. Yet before he could capitalize, Toru kicked the door closed with much force, catching them by surprise, and then he dove over the living room couch, aiming at the door.
He could hear them spreading out as the window-side bushes rustled. "Don't be fooled! I'm a top notch marksmen!" He yelled, his expression was that of a dare devil about to perform a very entertaining trick. Even though the curtains were pulled over the windows, he still managed to see the shadow lurking, and then the sound of gunfire as the window broke and whizzed through the mansion. "Hey! That's coming out of your paycheck!" He retorted firing a shot in response. He heard a grunt followed by a heavy thud. "That son of a bitch got me!" Someone screamed, and then the sound of the kitchen window opened could be heard. At the same time the front door busted open again, and the two intruders were fast approaching. Toru rolled firing at the entrance, knowing that getting through the kitchen window would be harder, rather than the immediate threat that was right in front of him. A vase shattered and water spilled over the floor. Tables were ripped apart by the gunfire. Toru managed to hit one of the intruders before fortifying himself inside of the study. There were five suits in total, two were hit, one was still approaching, and one was in the kitchen...that left one more. He turned around, seeing someone trying to break in through the study window, which was behind the mansion proper. It wasn't unlikely that there were even more men hiding elsewhere, but for now he turned around firing through the window, scaring the intruder off for a time. At this rate, I'm going to run out of bullets. Damn these bastards! He thought with a smiling as sweat poured down his face. For a rich, pampered pup, I'm doing pretty good. He raced over to far bookshelf just as the study door opened. "Just give up Toru." The man said, looking at him disgusted. "Aha! So even the grunts know my name!" He exclaimed with excitement in his voice as he pointed the gun right at the man. "I'm not a grunt. But you misunderstand, I'm not a member of Senba." He said stepping forward, holding his own gun. "Oh yeah? Then what's your motive then?" He didn't back down, as he stepped forward himself.
"I don't see the need to explain to you. I already know you're keeping your father in the closest upstairs, and soon my men will free him so he can continue his obligated duty as the executive of Senba." The words made Toru's eye furrow with puzzlement for the first time. So these guys aren't working with Senba, a third party trying to overrun the company while there is internal strife? Then why would he want my father...well duh, he sure as hell isn't acting himself! "If you give up, and promise to work with us, we'll let you live." The man stated, and then slowly Toru's mouth began to curve into a smile. "I wonder..." He began. "Who's faster?" He practically yelled, as his body pulsed with adrenaline and pulling the trigger, the man fell down. He ran up to the man who was groping his shoulder in pain, and then he picked up the enemy's weapon. "I guess I am." He said with mirth as he took a nearby ornament and dropped it on the man's face knocking him out. He then noticed that the man who had tried to sneak off to the study was nowhere to be seen. Not wanting to stay in the room any more, he left and cautiously walked back into the living room. He noticed another intruder unconscious on the floor with a kitchen knife lodged into his chest. Standing not to far from her victim was a Japanese woman who was dressed up as a maid, and she nodded as Toru entered the room. "Nice job, Keiko." He said giving her a thumbs up. The woman smiled with a boy. "Thank you master Toru, I'm glad to be of service." She stated humbly. "I'm going to check up on my dad...hey did you call the bodyguards?" He asked and she shook her head solemnly. "It's no use master Toru. I fear that something horrible has happened to the master's company." She said and he nodded still holding onto the gun. "Oh yeah? And where did you get that kind of info?" he asked, and the woman shook her head solemnly once more. "A member of our management division. It was so bad, that he was forced to leave the country to keep his family safe. Master Toru, you know of the faction schisms do you not?" The woman asked keeping her posture erect as she held her hands folded in front of her. He didn't bother asking her how she knew of it when he sole job was clean up after them, but still he couldn't deny the fact that she had practically killed one of the intruders with a kitchen knife. "I want you to get whatever information you can out of these guys." He said avoiding the question entirely. "Nobody can be trusted at this point." He added reloaded his gun looking around, and was confirmed by the silence that nobody was lurking around outside. "Keiko, I need you to hide yourself in this mansion once you've finished up cleaning this mess... I'm going to be going out, I won't be back for a while so don't come out or go anywhere in till everything is settled." He explained putting his gun back into it's holster. The woman gave him a deep bow as he started to walk upstairs to check on his father. "Because I don't know what the hell is going on. I'd like you to stay in my book of trust you hear? Don't go running around or I may have a good reason to do you in on the spot." He stated disappearing up the stairs and out of sight.
The Senba organization had taken a sharp turn for the worse as the faction revolution was growing more and more out of hand. Being home schooled, and not a very social person, Toru didn't have very many non associated people to turn to in this case. The general public would be the least affected by the internal strife of the Senba Organization, and so they wouldn't know anything, or would be too afraid to get involved in such an important issue which could go either way at this point. He decided, or rather, had already decided last night, that he would be taking things into his own seemingly capable hands.
Just eighteen years old, and already he had made the first giant step forward to securing the company for himself. But in all reality, he wasn't much of a businessman. He more or less saw the economic empire his father built as a giant pile of gold he could sell off to a more experienced and willing member of the company. Despite the intense plan and care his father took to prepare him for the position. Whatever the future held, or whatever this mess came down to, he would get to the bottom of everything in due time. Through the interrogation made by his family's servant, he was able to discover a very curious establishment that had just recent popped out of the ground so to speak: The two domes that were awkwardly positioned on the outskirts of the city. Toru had never gone undercover before, and he wasn't sure he liked it. He preferred to attack head on, as long of course, the outcome was in his favor. He sighed as he closed the door to the car that he owned. Life isn't always easy for the rich guy. He thought as he chuckled to himself, and then stretching out his arms, and adjusting his pack once more he stared at the domes once more.
"I think it's time for infiltration. I'll get in, and cleanse the plague that has been hindering -MY- company. Yes, ha-ha-ha!" He began to approach the domes in the same fashion that a police force might approach a drug house. He guessed that whoever it was inside was busy accommodating their guests, or whatever they brought in on those school buses, and they probably wouldn't notice him; and of course if anyone did, there was plenty of ammo to take care of them. His hand fingered the pistol. Not a soul was in sight as he came closer to one of the domes. He wasn't sure which one he should go into, they were probably connected somehow, but that was a grave assumption. Though he couldn't help but feel that the two white tops were just the tip of the iceberg. As he walked closer and closer he began to feel a strange rumbling coming from underneath him. The entire ground began to shake, and he knew that it wasn't natural as he had never experienced such an earthquake in Stadweld. "What the hell?!" He fell back and out of the corner of his eye he noticed that one of the domes was descending into the ground below. "Holy shit! That's crazy!" He looked around wildly to see if it was somehow related to his approach. The dome was spiraling down into the earth like a drill bit, and the bewildered Toru watched as it completely submerged into the ground. Then as the rumbling began to subside as the entire structure had descended, two giant steel plates slid over the surface as he then watched as a group of people came outside bearing shovels to cover up the gray patch of steel in the bed of gravel.
With a sigh of relief at the astounding silence that followed, Toru continued to watch out of sight. Deciding that it probably wasn't safe to remain outside, he began to search for an entrance to the dome that remained topside. Aside from the underground garage opening, the dome seemed completely sealed off, and seeing that the two garage entrances once faced each other, he wouldn't gain access that way without being seen by the maintenance unit. I highly doubt they only have one entrance. What if a fire breaks out? He thought to himself eying the concrete walls carefully, and then his speculation came to fruit as he noticed a small door, which seemed tightly set in place. He pulled on the handle and wasn't surprised to find that it was locked. He backed away and then, reaching into an accessible pouch in his pack, he attacked a silencer to the gun and pointed it at the handle. It had been his most favorable hobby ever since he was introduced to his father's bodyguards, and of course, his father had granted him that wish: One hobby. That was it. And Toru was thankful for his love of guns, especially handguns.
"Aha! Open Says me!" He fired a few bullets into the door and then with a running kick he slammed it open, and he quickly raced in to see if anyone one had noticed. The room he entered in was completely empty aside from a thick web of colored wiring; it appeared to be some kind of electrical maintenance room. He closed the door behind him, and continued on to the next door. He moved through it and into another hallway. Looking around he felt as if he had entered some strange alien craft. The odd stillness of the place bothered him greatly, and there was a strange scent on the air as if the entire hallway had been sprayed with some kind of chemical gas. Reaching over to his backpack he removed a simple gasmask and adjusted it to his face. They were fairly expensive, but of course, being involved with Senba, being a company centered around chemicals, it wasn't uncommon or hard for him to acquire. He held out his gun as he moved through the quiet hallways, hearing ominous buzzing sounds, which pulled at his consciousness ever so slightly. Were there cameras around? Were they watching me? Ha! let them, I'll kill anyone who threatens my family, or something badass like that. He thought wishing he hadn't smoked that cigarette before his infiltration. At this moment, his nerves were crisp, his senses acute. The style of the place irked thought; The glowing white tile, and the construction of the doorframes, it all reminded Toru of something that would fly in space. There were no maps or directions posted on the walls, but aside from the many doors that lined the hallway, there was only one direction to go, and the direction he was currently going gave him the feeling that he was going up slightly. If this place is really built like a drill, then I guess it would just continue to spiral up in till it reached the top. The self-proclaimed, new executive of Senba continued his upward survey of the dome.
Unaware that everything he was doing was being watched.
~End~
~Scratch: The pieces are finally coming together, as everyone comes to the same twin domes.~
Next time on scratch: Norie, Michi and Kaz come to an astounding conclusion. Continue to read as all the pieces begin to fall into place!
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