"We have a problem." Luke began.
Currently, he and Richard were in Philip's apartment. His father had to be at work, and his mother was in the hospital. She should have already given birth a month ago, but for some reason, unknown to the doctors, the pregnancy was still progressing. Philip, despite his scant medical skills, tried to understand what was going on by scanning her body with chakra, but also came to nothing. So he was forced to wait.
"I finally succeeded in accessing the police archives. It wasn't easy, even though I had access to them in my last life, so they will soon detect it. I was planning to use it later, but I needed to understand at what stage their investigation is, and the conclusion doesn't look good..." He paused to finish the pie.
"Well, tell me what you found out?" Richard was clearly annoyed by this long introduction and interruption.
"They obtained proof of the existence of an unknown energy..."
"What?! What proof? What exactly do they know?" Now it was Richard who interrupted him.
"I'll explain if you don't interrupt me."
"Speak faster, these lengthy monologues of yours are annoying. Facts please!"
"Eh. They are in possession of one of Philip's shurikens, which is most likely still imbued with his chakra. The archer didn't clean up the battle site perfectly, which..."
"That's impossible, chakra doesn't last that long in ordinary metal, especially since I used a negligible amount of it!" This time the interrupter was Philip.
"You really should learn to restrain your childish hormones. Patience. I have seen the results of their research, based on which I have a hypothesis. Although they have not yet noticed it, it is likely that the shuriken is influenced by two energies that support each other..."
"Philip's chakra and what Archer used!" Exclaimed Richard.
"Ahh. Yes. I think there is a similar mechanism at work here to how practicing Haki increases Chakra. Of course, this is just a hypothesis and..."
"What do we do about it? We have to take it away from them before they realize what they're dealing with!"
"..." A mark of annoyance began to appear on Luke's face too. "I've already thought about it and the probability of success without being noticed is zero. They have already noticed that this is something unusual and intend to move the shuriken soon. I'm not sure where, but certainly to a more secure location." Luke paused, thinking someone would interrupt him again, but this time they were quiet. "Ekhem. Also, we don't have time to gather more information or find someone to help us disable the alarms and cameras."
"After all, you or Philip just need to use this ridiculous transformation technique and pretend to be a scientist or someone, without any problem going in and taking that spinning wheel."
"It's not as simple as you think. With this technique we can only copy a person's appearance. Fingerprints, retina, tone of voice, won't match. Not to mention DNA." Philip enumerated the problems. "If we had more time this could be circumvented, but from what Luke says we don't."
"That's right. We just don't have the time and resources to do it unnoticed. That's why I have to ask you if we should still do it? If we don't meet anyone like Archer then the probability of completing the task openly is one hundred percent. However, plans with non-disclosure can then be thrown in the trash."
"Of course we should. If the government gets its hands on this it will only bring us an even bigger disaster." Richard replied firmly.
"I have to agree with Richard. They will already have some assumptions, so it's better to slow them down which will give us more time to prepare. Besides, it's my fault, so I volunteer to fix it." Philip said.
"I'm not going to blame you. No one would have done better in that situation. Yes Richard I have you in mind as well. However, Philip is right that he is the best for this type of task. So I think we have made a decision. I will have to change some of our plans." Announced Luke, handing Philip a flash drive. "Here you have all the information I was able to get. One more detail, the link between the police and the investigation team is your father Phi..." With these words Luke disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.
"It's strange, Luke miscalculated the duration of the clone?" Richard asked.
"No. Apparently being annoyed sped up the counter. Interesting flaw."
"Shall I help you?"
"No. I can handle it."
...
Philip decided to complete the task already that night. Finally, they didn't know exactly how much time they had before moving the shuriken to another location.
He waited for his father to return home, but got a call from him that he was going to the hospital. Even better, though he still left a simple clone in case he came back and looked in his room. He wasn't too concerned about making his father job a little more difficult. If he did nothing it would be even worse for him.
They had terribly little information. All he knew was that the shuriken was currently in some laboratory and he knew a few facts about the people who were investigating. Not much, but it will have to be enough.
To begin with, this lab needs to be located.
...
Frank returned to his hotel room after another wasted day. Other than the unexplained shuriken, they have nothing. No leads, witnesses or suspects. Absolutely nothing. The investigation was at a standstill and he could only hope that Lexie would discover something or another incident would occur.
With this attitude, he threw himself on the bed and turned on the TV. He needs to rest and clear his thoughts.
Knock Knock
Fuck! Not even five minutes of peace and quiet.
"Who's there!" He shouted.
"It's me. Lexie wants to see us at the lab. She found something." He heard Nazeeha's voice.
"Can't it wait until tomorrow!"
"No."
Fuck. He got up and went to open the door.
"What's the matter?"
"I have no idea. She told us to come as soon as possible. She has some kind of breakthrough."
"What about George and Jonathan?"
"George is at his wife's side in the hospital, and Jonathan isn't answering his phone."
"Ah. I guess I don't have a way out. Let's go." He headed toward the exit.
Strange, no mean comment? I guess she's as tired as I am.
"Are we driving mine or yours?" He asked.
"Yours."
She really is tired.
...
So far it's going smoothly. Philip thought. I used a simple genjutsu to make sure Nazeeha is asleep and won't disturb me with an accidental phone call. Father is busy at the hospital, and Lexie should be in the lab the whole time. The only unknown remained Jonathan, who was not at the hotel.
They drove in silence. Judging by their shared surname they are family, but for lack of information he preferred not to speak, lest he say something inappropriate. Originally he wanted to use Jonathan, but could not locate him. Sooner or later everything will be revealed, but it was better to keep his father out of it, he now has the health of my mother and future brother on his mind.
After a fifteen-minute drive they were at the site. The laboratory had an underground parking area, where they stopped. On the way out, Philip positioned himself so that it was Frank who was in the lead the whole time.
Meanwhile, Frank got out and took out some sort of ID badge, which he pinned to his coat. "Where's your identification?"
Holy shit. There are so many security features in this world that I just missed it.
"I forgot." He chuckled, preparing to use a genjutsu just in case. Although he didn't want to do it, because he has difficulty controlling the target without his eyes. He still needs time to get used to their absence.
"Mhm. Well mine is enough."
They entered the elevator and Frank, after a moment's hesitation, chose the 3rd floor. Philip, of course, noticed this. "What are you doing? This is the wrong floor."
Frank is suspicious and well-trained, but so am I.
"Why, oh yes, you're right, I'm tired." He replied and changed the floor to -3.
...
Is it just my imagination? Frank wondered. No mean comments. She was terribly stiff in the car. Usually she would turn on some loud music, but this time she just sat quietly. Well, and she forgot her ID. She doesn't forget anything.
Something is wrong, but I don't know what. She said Jonathan is not answering the phone, let's see.
"Wait a minute, I have to go to the toilet." He said as they walked past.
"Now? Let's find out what Lexie wants first."
"You can go alone, I'll join you soon."
"I'll wait. Hurry up."
Evidently something is wrong.
Frank was already about to go inside, but Nazeeha grabbed his arm.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
Suddenly his head hurt.
"Lead me to the shuriken." He heard and started walking.
What am I doing? I was supposed to go into the restroom and call Jonathan. Why does my head hurt so much? What's going on?
They stopped in front of a closed door. "Enter the code." He heard Nazeeha's voice again, he had no reason to disobey.
No, wait, why am I doing what he orders me to do? Fuck, stop it! "Aaa!" He shouted out and slammed his fist into his face. However, the door was already open.
"Who the hell are you?"
"You will finally find out. This is definitely not our last meeting." Those were the last words he heard before he lost consciousness. Fuck!
...
The rest was easy. Philip went in and knocked Lexie unconscious. He then plugged Luke's flash drive into the computer and launched the program that had been installed on it. It was designed to clear the entire memory.
Then he walked over to the shuriken and looked at it. There really are remnants of chakra and something else on it. Luke was right.
He put on the gloves he had prepared earlier and tucked it into a hidden pouch, which, just in case, was empty.
Task done, it was time...
Damn! What's going on? Suddenly my whole body ached. Damn, I can't pass out here. "Aaa." The pain was so salivating that Philip started screaming.
With his last strength, he used Soru several times to get out of the lab. The chakra inside him was raging, and he did everything in his power to keep the transformation from dissipating.
Finally, he got out and used Shunshin no Soru to move to the area near Richard's place. At this point, the Henge no Jutsu was dissipated. The last thing he could do before he passed out was to send a chat message: "Captain red cat outside."
...
The sound from the phone woke Richard up. "And I said I'd help!" He read the message and screamed, then jumped out the window.
After searching for a while, he found Philip unconscious. At first glance there was nothing wrong with him, but even a slap in the face didn't wake him up.
I'll be damned. I don't have time for these stupid codes. "Need help." He sent a message.
Moments later, an unknown number called him. "Speak concisely." The voice was distorted.
Richard tried to change his voice a bit himself, then briefly described the situation.
"Take him to his apartment and watch from a distance. There's nothing more we can do for now."
...
"The Commander has sent more crates of food. You know what to do." I said and watched as the workers carried the crates into the kitchen.
They were so heavy that they had to take them in two. I myself brought six crates here at once. Apparently, my strength is still much higher than average. It's just a shame that the Commander doesn't seem to care. Annoying...
While I was thinking about it like this, I suddenly heard the noise of a falling crate. "What the hell are you guys doing, you can't even carry the crate safely to the site?! Huh? Where is the other one?"
"I have no idea, he suddenly disappeared without a trace."
"This place is really messed up. Wahaha."
