Maria’s Diary

February 6th

A lot has happened in the last few weeks here at the Japanese branch of I.S.C. All of us who work here are excited after hearing the news that the president of the company has managed to secure a contract with the government to develop new equipment for its Self-Defense Forces. But the changes in the work will also take a long time to appear.

First, the CEO put someone new in charge of our entire division, Mr. Brandon, who seems to be one of the best employees at headquarters and one of the best researchers out there. Things have started to move pretty quickly with him. But by all accounts, he's just getting ready for the real work.

I don't know what the President asked him to do here. But Brandon says he can't do anything until he "solidifies" our position.

He personally asked me for an assignment to do that. He asked me to keep an eye on a girl who is studying at a school because apparently her father is someone important and they might be spying on her. According to Brandon, all I have to do is just report anything I see that is suspicious. But I don't really know why he sent me on this job, because the father of the girl in question is just a financial accountant. But I'm not going to complain about this job, because I'm grateful for the opportunity Mr. Brandon is giving me to finally pay my hospital bill so my mother can have a rest from our debts.

Continuing with what I have observed so far, it was also quite strange in itself. Just when I thought it would be a boring task to follow the girl for several days, the things that happen around me become more and more unusual.

First of all, it seems that an I.S.C. technician made a mistake when registering me for school, so I ended up in a different classroom than the one I was supposed to be observing. Still, we decided to go ahead with the plan. When I started following the girl, one of her friends realized that I was following her and started teasing me about it, so I had to lower my profile in class again. The next thing that happened was that the teacher apparently had to withdraw because of something that happened to her family, so a substitute teacher came in.

And as if that wasn't enough, two weeks later two new students arrived. One is called Tamamo and the other Elise, which couldn't be weirder. One of them has a headband with animal ears and a tail, I think she's one of those cosplayers who just won't take it off. The other one is also quite rare, because apart from the fact that she is albino, she has a hat on her head, crystals in her hair, and a jacket around her waist that she has not taken off all day, and even though she can see during the day that it really makes her uncomfortable, she refuses to take it off.

When they appeared for a second, I thought they might even be working for a rival company, trying to keep an eye on my target as well. But after a few moments, I understood that this was impossible, because no one with a normal intelligence would send the two strangest things possible to do something like spy. As soon as those girls appeared, they put on a show between them that they were a couple. So now they are even the protagonists of all kinds of rumors at school.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I have to do homework with them in a cafeteria, so I have to warn them because it will take longer to get back. I still don't understand why I have to spend the night in this disgusting warehouse. According to Brandon, it is to mislead other people who might follow me and jeopardize the mission. But even if that's true, I don't understand why there's so much security here, there are cameras all over the place, in addition to various armed men watching. It feels more like a prison than a place to hide.

But I don't mind putting up with it for a while. When I'm done, I'll be able to go home to my mother. I'll even be able to pay my way back. I might even be able to help her financially since she probably doesn't have much money, and that's why she can't visit me all the time.

This is all the fault of my stupid brother Cesar, that idiot left the house without telling anyone where he was going, just to join the Alliance, for sure with the excitement of being able to get some girl with her soldier's uniform, but seeing how useless he is even to talk to them, for sure the girls hate him as always. And since he surely could not bear to live alone for the rest of his life, he let himself be killed in a stupid way.

This is all his fault, if that idiot had not died so far away from home, Mom would not have had to spend a lot of money that she surely did not have to bring back the remains of that irresponsible person. So Mom had nothing to visit me with.

If you are reading this from heaven, I want you to know that I hate you for what you did to our mother Cesar!

Because you were never like our brother Leo, he is a respectable person. Right now I am talking to him and I know that he has established his own family abroad without any help from anyone and he is even trying to help me as much as he can. So now I decide that I want to be like him, someone who is responsible for his actions, and what better way than to do my job for nothing more and nothing less than for the I.S.C. No doubt Leo and Mom will be impressed when I tell them about everything I have done here. After all, I am thinking about fulfilling the promise I made to Dad that he would be cured and that I would find happiness.

Speaking of impressing, I have also been practicing a new magic trick to teach Mom when she comes back with her. It is still not working because I need to buy another carton of eggs to continue practicing, but I am sure I will master it in a short time, so I will try to put on a little magic show where I show a compilation of all the tricks I know. But I hope I can improve with them, because I don't want to break anything again if I want to give the image of an adult and responsible person.