Two tall men, one larger and taller in stature than the other, were walking down the brightly lit street one night, looking for a place to fulfill their nightly craving of ramen. The shorter of the two picked a stall, one he thought has the strongest sake and pursuaded his friend to stop there. The taller one agreed but before long, the behemoth was tucking more sake than ramen that night, much to the satisfaction of his companion.
At that same moment, a redheaded mechanic was tossing and turning in his sleep, dreaming about being rained by a shower of words before being buried by torrents of hard-covered books.
"No more.... NO MORE!!" Sakuragi groaned.
Sendoh, who has heard the redhead's nightmare-induced panic as he was walking past the mechanic's room to go to the toilet, hesitated at the door, wondering if the redhead would be upset that he saw him like this. Finally making up his mind to enter, his hand was about to reach the door knob when he heard a door creak and letting his hand fall back down, he turned to his right to see Rukawa who peering out to the corridor before the fox-eyed man turned towards Sendoh. Midnight-blues met midnight blues.
Sendoh, unable to tell himself that he should not feel guilty being caught hovering in front of Sakuragi's door, fought to control his blush until Rukawa stepped out and walked calmly towards him, barefoot. Sendoh met Rukawa's challenging look with his own.
Hearing another whimper from behind Sakuragi's door, the two brunettes turned to the door to stare, wanting to go in, but both reluctant to enter with the other still there. Seeing that Sendoh was not backing down by the unwavering look he was giving to Rukawa, the fox-eyed pilot huffed that his bangs fluttered over his forehead to settle back down again in an instant.
"I am going to win this competition for Sakuragi," Rukawa vowed, before turning back on his heels to go back to his room. Sendoh, startled by that statement, narrowed his eyes a second later before he too turned back to his room, having forgotten his need to relieve himself.
"We'll see about that," the tall pilot said to himself.
~~~~
It was bright and early that morning, as a 50-something year old man, wearing glasses and whitening hair, walked out of his new shop to prop up a notice as high as his waist on the pavement right in front of his establishment.
Pleased with how it looked, he was about to enter his book shop again when he heard a rumbling sound of heavy vehicle and upon looking at the street, a dark green military truck appeared and to his surprise, stopped right in front of him. An officer got out of the passenger seat and quickly more soldiers got out from the back, pulling out blockades and erecting them across the road to the orders of their superior.
"That's right, set it up over there," the first officer called out to his team as he talked in military lingos into the walky-talky he held in his hand.
"Wh-What's going on?" the shop owner stammered as more soldiers clomped past him, carrying more blockades - and he thought he saw a few banners and streamers fluttering past but he was not sure.
The officer snapped to attention and said, "I am ordered to close down the down town area. I am not authorised to disclose anything further!"
The shop owner persisted again for an answer but his soft voice was too easily drowned out by the thundering sound of a helicopter overhead.
"What's going on??" the poor man whimpered.
The helicopter above the town circled around the area, scanning the street with their high-powered camera and from there, the picture was transmitted to a satellite in space and through that, it was then sent back to all the different army locations in Japan.
------
At Naha base, a gathering crowd of army personnel were watching the programme from the common room television in anticipation for the start of the contest. They were all either clutching or taking furtive glances of their betting slips.
At Komatsu base, a group of high military officers gathered in the meeting room, looking grimly at the subjects presented to them - officers Sakuragi, Akagi, Rukawa, Sendoh and Hikoichi - projected on the presentation screen with their statistics for winning, and all began to calculate with their military genius the odds of each contestant's success.
On the US 7th Fleet Sea Carrier, the navy officers sat in their cafeteria, watching reruns of captured moments taken of the contestants during their week of training before the competition. Most of the reruns of the redhead was of him during his training with Akagi and although he looked worse for wear after every session, there was still a foolish few who kept their faith in him.
"Hey, double my bet on Red there!" a blonde told the bookie.
"Me on the big guy!" his companion exclaimed after he saw Akagi going over a thick book for half an hour without looking the least bit tired.
------
A knock came on General Anzai's door and after a curt addmittance from the white-haired man, the door opened and in came a young, attractive, spectacled officer with a file in one hand.
"I'm sorry I'm late, General," First Sargeant Kogure apologised after he gave his superior a salute, "Here is the report that you have ordered regarding Operation Alpha-Lingo."
The general nodded and took the file offered, reading it in silence as the brown-haired officer waited as he has not been dismissed.
"As I have suspected," the general spoke up after a while, "Captain Akagi in the favourite among the contestants."
"Yes, sir," the controller affirmed, "He won five read-a-thon competition, two private and three state-acclaimed during his high-school year. With his IQ-level and endurance skill, the odds are stretched to his favour."
"Sendoh and Rukawa?"
"They come in second though not close, closer to Sakuragi in fact than to Akagi, since both have the inability to focus when distracted," Kogure replied.
General Anzai looked down at the notes that Kogure has typed on his investigation.
"They however, are best when challenged and have something to fight for."
The sargeant gave the general a knowing look. "Sakuragi?"
The white-haired put down the file on his desk and smiled. "Precisely. He is the secret to Sendoh's and Rukawa's strength - one that no one outside this unit has accounted for. Put me in for Sendoh and Rukawa - a 50-50 split."
"Yes, sir!"
~~~~~
An hour later, the team from the 101st Kanagawa Airbats TTS could be seen walking on the road towards the new book-store in town, all filed in a row, each with varying expressions on their faces. But all were confused at the turnout they found upon their arrival in town - people from various units of Japan's self-defence force, have flocked to cheer from the side of the street behind the line of the military blockade.
"Go! Go! Akagi!"
"We're putting our faith in you, Sendoh! Don't let us down now!"
The spikey-haired pilot sweatdropped as he smiled and waved back at them.
"Who are these people?" he mumbled from between his teeth.
"Who cares," growled Sakuragi, eyes narrowing when he thought he saw a banner with a caricature of himself with the words 'When you can't beat, BEAT 'em!'
Rukawa nodded listlessly at a few officers who shouted encouragements to him and some of the female ones even blew kisses and waved at him adoringly.
Hikoichi stared at the bits of confetti fluttering past him with surprise. "This is an awful lot of trouble to watch someone read a book," he commented.
Akagi, who normally walks with firm and precise steps, looked hungover to care but he did notice the other officer who was walking beside him.
"I thought you were against this," the captain grumbled to Commander Taoka.
"I changed my mind," the commander sniffed, keeping the sly look hidden from Akagi's eyes.
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