Night Hunters

Chapter Three: Light and Shadow

One of the rebels that goes by the name of Iwamura or something who had been the one liaising with several of the black market weapon vendors had told them curtly that Tamaki, Shigehiro and Haizaki are all excellent judges of character. As former Royal Guard members, they were specially trained to detect lies and all that, even being able to tell if someone means them harm or not. That is why before the rebel forces accept any new members into their forces, they have to first go through Tamaki, Shigehiro and Haizaki.

Shigehiro had also offered to teach Seirin how to handle guns, since the only weapons that Seirin knew how to handle at present are swords and daggers, and in Riko's case, whips. Izuki and Koganei seemed to have a knack for them for some reason.

Thus, by the time a month had flown by, Seirin had quickly settled in together with the rest of the other rebels at the Phantom base. Takao is usually the one running things there if Tamaki, Shigehiro and Haizaki aren't around. And during their first week, he had been quick to fill Seirin in on the fact that all of them take turns at doing guard duty, as someone needs to be awake at all times to make sure that the enemy hadn't found them.

Not that they think anyone would betray them or even stumble across their location by 'accident'. Even still, Tamaki didn't get to be a member of the Generation of Miracles by being careless, and she was particularly insistent on this rule. As none of the others want to meet an early death, they were quick to agree to it.

Something that Seirin found out rather quickly is that not everyone actually goes to the surface. The only ones that does are those that specialises in intel gathering—those are mainly the Touou group, which Seirin later found consists of Imayoshi Shoichi, Wakamatsu Kousuke and Susa Yoshinari. All three of them used to serve under Tamaki in the Intelligence Unit when they were still in the Royal Guard, and they have followed her when she'd defected. Even the ones that usually go about stealing Robin Hood style don't always go to the surface. They usually go once or twice each month. Anymore than that, and they will get themselves caught easily.

Hence why Kagami Taiga who is usually extremely active can't seem to sit still that day, thus annoying the hell out of everyone.

Shigehiro who finally had his patience reaching his limit, looked at Kagami with exasperation over the map that he is currently leaning over with Haizaki. Said map easily covered at least one-third of one of the eating tables in their base.

"Kagami, if you really want something to do, go and help Tamaki with guard duty." Shigehiro said, annoyed, resisting the urge to stab Kagami with the pen that he is holding.

The base is unusually quiet that day, as the Touou group had been sent out to the surface to collect intel, as the Royal Guard have been really quiet recently. Too quiet until even Tamaki is uneasy.

Whenever those guys are quiet, it never bodes good news.

"G-Guard duty?" Kagami spluttered. The redhead dislikes guard duty out of almost everything else, as it is damn boring just sitting there for hours doing nothing. Usually, there are two people stationed for guard duty in case one of them dozed off by mistake.

"Someone must always be awake at all times down here; we're in more danger than you think." Haizaki said, annoyed. How many times must they repeat it? "And well..." He glanced over at the entrance to the manhole cover where Tamaki is currently sitting on one of the crates by the ladder that leads to the surface. "Tamaki has been taking the guard duty for four nights in a row now. We're all getting worried. She might talk to you about what's going on."

"I barely know her!" Kagami protested. "What makes you think—"

"Precisely the reason why she might talk to you." Takao Kazunari interrupted just then, approaching the lot of them with several notebooks in his arms, with Miyaji Kiyoshi and Otsubo Taisuke close behind him, also with notebooks in their arms. "The transcripts from the various communications." He added to Shigehiro and Haizaki who both nodded, as the Shutoku group settled down in the seats and started going through the notebooks.