Rei and Kochibi sat on wooden bleachers at the right side of the covered court. Kochibi ended the story of how he met Rei and just as he was about to tell him another story of his past, he received a text message from his sister, Konan.
"Where are you, bro? You still have to consult Engr. Hino..."
Kochibi sighed after reading the message. Rei noticed his expression and told him, "It's alright Chibi-chan. We can talk some other time. I need to rest after absorbing and recalling everything you said earlier."
The little guy looked hesitant as he replied, "You sure, Kuro-chan? I mean, we're talking about your past here. I could just..."
Rei interrupted and declined, "It's fine, really. I have to cancel my classes as well. I'm in no condition to teach after what happened."
"Sorry, Kuro-chan..." Kochibi apologized.
Rei extended his right hand towards his friend and smiled, "It was nice meeting you again, Kochibi. Let's talk again, like we've always been..."
He then left the covered court. Kochibi, on the other hand, thought, "I'll meet you again in this place, Rei..."
On his way back to the faculty room, tidbits of his lost memories kept on flashing back on his mind, "Why? Why were these hidden from me?"
Meanwhile, Isabelle received a text message from an unknown number on her mobile phone. Starting to feel disturbed, she stopped working and picked up her phone to read the message.
"I know your game has just started. But soon it will roll its ending credits, Ms. Schwartz..."
Reading the message gave her goosebumps and then she began feeling uneasy. She tried calling the sender, but the phone just kept on ringing.
"Game? What is he talking about?" she wondered.
She gave up on calling after several attempts and tried calling Daigo instead.
"Oh, Sabu-chan? What's up?" answered Daigo.
"How's Rei doing?" she asked.
Daigo laughed mischievously and answered, "He's doing a great job at Todai. You really must be obsessed with him, huh?"
She ignored his question and asked another one, "Were there times he's acting weird or something?"
He smirked and asked her back, "Why are you asking me this? Did something happened to him to act weird?"
Isabelle paused for a moment and thought, "What the hell... Why am I so tense and irritable? I have to calm down somehow..."
She then exhaled and told Daigo, "My bad, Daigo-kun... I think I just miss him..."
She ended the call and started crying. Daigo thought about the sudden change in Isabelle's tone while he wandered around the city streets holding a large metallic suitcase.
"Acting weird, huh? Why did she sound troubled?" he thought.
Mindlessly walking forward, he bumped into a woman. Judging her from her looks, she was a college student. After exchanging apologies, they both walked separate ways. The student, however, noticed something on the floor. She lowered down and picked it up. It was a picture of students posing for a group picture. As she stood up, she took a closer look at it and gasped after seeing someone familiar.
"Brother? Aren't these his friends from college?" she wondered.
The student was Kochibi's younger sister, Konan. She looked back to see if the man was still there, but all she saw were other people.
"I'm sure that that man dropped this..."
She then noticed the signature on the top left side of the picture and gasped, "Hey! Isn't this my brother's signature? Why does he have my brother's photo?"
She rushed back home and noticed the change on their doorknob's rotational position.
"I don't see the silver scratch... What the..."
She twisted it open and rushed inside their home. She wondered why there was an illicit entry when in fact, there weren't any changes inside the apartment.
"This looks suspicious..." she said.
She took hold of the picture and looked at it again. She then decided to check inside Kochibi's bedroom. There were no changes as well.
"This is starting to freak me out..."
Kochibi, on the other hand, was just done talking to Engr. Hino when his phone suddenly rang.
"Konan, huh?"
As he pressed the button to answer the call, Konan rushed on talking, "Bro! Bro! You need to come home right now! I think we've been robbed."
Shocked with what her sister said, Kochibi looked confused and asked, "What?! Are you sure?"
Konan insisted on coming home immediately. Kochibi heed his sister's call and rushed home. Upon looking at things inside their apartment, he wondered, "What are you talking about, Konan? This place is untouched."
The sister explained about the doorknob's rotation, "I know it's unbelievable, but we never ever doubted our doorknob..."
"She has a point..." he thought.
After thinking about it for a while, Kochibi suggested, "How about we check all the cabinets inside the apartment?"
The search began immediately after Konan nodded. The two began searching the cabinets at the living room. After confirming the cabinets untouched at his side, Kochibi gave Konan a signal that he will be checking the cabinets in his bedroom.
While Konan thoroughly checked the cabinets at her side, Kochibi then started checking the cabinets inside his bedroom. The moment he touched the knob on one of the drawers, he felt the loss on its weight.
"This is weird... " he thought.
He then pulled that drawer slowly and gasped in shock after seeing it was empty.
"My photo albums..."
He pulled out the other drawers and started to panic after seeing that they were empty as well.
"My photos are gone!" he shouted.
After Konan heard her brother screaming, she rushed to his room to check on what happened. She saw him kneel down and witnessed him crying.
"Those pictures... They're gone..." he cried.
Konan approached Kochibi and wrapped her arms around him in embrace. He leaned his head on her sister's shoulder and told her, "Those were very important photos... Kuro-chan's memories..."
She remembered the incident she had earlier and took out the picture from her pocket. She handed it to her brother and asked, "Isn't this yours?"
Kochibi grabbed the photo, confirmed that it belonged to him, and asked her, "Why do you have this, Konan?"
Konan held her hands and started explaining, "I bumped into a guy earlier. He was wearing blue long sleeves, a white vest, and white slacks. And oh, he was carrying a big suitcase. For sure, he was wearing a cap. Getting this picture after that encounter couldn't be a mere coincidence. Your photos might be inside that suit case."
Kochibi asked for the man's facial features but she couldn't recall. He then tried linking the leads his sister gave him and thought, "Who else would wear vests besides Kuro-chan?"
Rei, on the other hand, was done posting his suspension notices on every classroom where he held his classes. He rushed down and went to his car parked at the parking lot. As he buckled on his seat belt and started the car engine, he thought about the things Kochibi told him. He wondered if these things are the end to his lost memories.
As he drove downtown, he thought about the reason why he came back to Japan.
"Blondie..." he sighed.
He then gasped and grabbed his phone to call Isabelle. It kept on ringing but she didn't pick it up. He tried calling for the second time, but it was the same.
"What the hell, blondie? Why aren't you answering?"
Rei stepped on the accelerator to speed up. He stopped calling Isabelle and instead, called a representative from the Schwartz corporation to book him a flight for Paris.
"I have to go back... That blondie knows something..." he thought.
Meanwhile, an unexpected visitor entered Isabelle's office. He dressed formally; a white long-sleeved polo covered with a black tuxedo for the top, silky black slacks for the pants, and a pair of brown pointy leather shoes.
The ambiance inside was silent that only his footsteps were heard. He approached her and greeted her, "Bonjour, Madamoiselle..."
Isabelle expected him to come and said, "It's that time of the year, huh?"
The man's name was Merick. Unlike Isabelle having blonde hair, his was brown. Looking at her expression, he said, "We must hurry, Isabelle. You know the chairman's temper, right?"
She stood up from her seat and replied, "I know, Merick. I know..."
She then asked Merick to escort her to the chairman's office located at the floor above her office. They went out of the room and rode an elevator to the next floor. On their way to the said office, Isabelle browsed on her phone inbox and thought about the message she received earlier.
"Rei-kun... Are you..."
As they stepped inside the office, the secretary guided them to the conference hall next to her table. Upon entering, they saw the chairman seated on a chair beside a big projector screen. He looked young for a person in his mid-fifties. The hall was dark where only the bright light coming out from the projector illuminated the place. Isabelle and Merick than sat on their respective seats.
After acknowledging their presence, the chairman cleared his throat as a signal for Merick to start the meeting. Merick stood up and spoke in French, "Doit nous commencer?"
The people present sat up straight and focused their attention to him. He then started the meeting based on the agenda flashed on the projector screen.
"First off, we have Isabelle..."
He flashed several slides of possible rival companies trying to infiltrate their company's confidential files and databases.
"Since this is a security matter, the chairman expects your department to deal on these attacks accordingly."
While jotting down the names of the companies, Isabelle asked, "Can I leave after this?"
Merick glanced at the chairman and saw him nod as a signal for allowing Isabelle to leave early. He looked at her and replied, "Of course. You have to work on that immediately, right?"
She left after granted the permission to leave and went back to her office.
"I might as well get busy with things..." she thought.
She then contacted the specialists from her department and asked them for an urgent meeting inside her office.
Rei rushed on his way to the airport so he could immediately board the earliest flight for Paris. The moment he arrived, he met the representative to get his plane ticket. It stated that the flight to Paris was at 6:35 in the evening.
"That blondie has a lot of explaining to do..." he thought.
He had nothing else to do, so he spent the remaining time waiting for his flight.
Isabelle gathered the people she needed for the meeting inside her office. But before she could start, she put on a serious look on her face and told everyone present, "If Kurogane Rei asks for me, please tell him that I'm not around. Tell him I'm attending a business trip with the chairman."
On her left hand, she held on to a decorated white envelope. Inside her mind she thought, "It's still early, Rei... Don't hasten things..."
To be continued...