Intermission II

What were the others up to?

Well, more specifically, group three that were assigned to Block B of Kashitama.

Block B of Kashitama was consumed by a suburb, a place where people worked, but more importantly, lived in.

Not a lot of people worked in Block B compared to Block A, most workers found themselves living in Block B, but working within A, where jobs were always at a demand.

Every Block within Kashitama served a purpose for the overall success and production of the country, Block A being economics and business, B being housing, C being agriculture, and D being the supply of power for the three other blocks.

Nonetheless, it worked excellently, and it is extremely difficult for other countries within the world to duplicate this system while maintaining the political dogmas of the past.

Kashitama's political system was quite different from the rest of the country, but that is something for another time, more importantly, the spotlight should now be on group two, who found themselves on a night assignment within Block B.

The six members of group 3 were all dressed to blend into the darkness of the night as they were split into pairs and appeared to be staking out a home.

Asami with Mitsugi, Morna with Ramani, and Sofia with Takahiro as their instructor was a step back from this process, giving orders while having a view of the entire canvas.

"Everyone in their positions?" the instructor spoke through a radio.

The instructor's name was Sarah Sojiko, and she was a cop within Block B in the morning and ran a night watch program at night.

It was surprising to group two that she was able to function so well with little to no sleep.

She sat within a dark-colored jeep that was across the street from the house that was pitch black on the inside.

Then, a couple of spotlights can be seen beaming through the windows from the inside of the home.

Sofia and Takahiro were prepared near the entrance of the home as the door looked to be wide open.

Sofia was dressed in all black with a baseball cap, and Takahiro, also dressed in all black but he preferred a beanie over a cap.

"We're clear at the front…" Sofia softly said, she spoke into an earpiece that was connected to the Instructor's radio.

Ramani and Morna were opposite Sofia and Takahiro, set up within the backyard of this home awaiting the orders of the commander as they were also dressed in similar clothing to Sofia and Takahiro.

"We got the back…" Ramani quietly said.

Asami and Mitsugi found themselves in a similar location to the Instructor, scouting the area from across the street with binoculars, but remained hidden without a vehicle.

"We're ready over here." Asami said.

"I don't know if I can do this…" Mitsugi said.

"They're depending on us, you can do this." Asami replied.

Then immediately after Sarah received confirmation from all three pairs, she made it known it was time to move by shouting "Units one and two, move in!" through the radio.

"We're still clear here…" Asami said.

"I don't know…" Mitsugi said.

Asami didn't bother to reply to Mitsugi's woes as she just put her head into the grass in disappointment of the role that she got stuck in.

Inside the home that should have been vacant lay two men who've broken in, attempting to take whatever luxuries they find.

"You hear that?"

"Don't worry, no one's home." the man said as both of them are carrying a lounge chair and headed for the front door.

Suddenly, Morna and Ramani make themselves known from their previous location and point their weapons at the thieves, although the only weapons they were trusted with were taser guns, but it should be more than enough.

"Freeze!" Morna shouted.

"Put the—the sofa down!" Ramani shouted.

"Goddammit!" one of the men shouted as he dispersed towards the front door.

The second man's path is blocked by the sofa as his back is turned towards Morna and Ramani.

Morna tases the man, which does its purpose and knocks him to the ground in a dazed state.

"Who the hell are these girls!" the man shouted as he successfully made it out of the house.

Takahiro then stands in his path, forcing him to redirect to the left rather than straight forward.

Sofia does the same within his redirected path, but her appearance isn't nearly as intimidating as Takahiro's, who stands at just over 6 feet.

"Ya just a girl, this should be quick." The man said as he whipped out a weapon of his own, a pocket knife, something that isn't made for self-defense but it'll do.

He swings the blade straight for Sofia, attempting to disable her with just one blow.

His wrist was caught by Sofia, which shocked the thief that she was capable of successfully performing such a feat.

She acted accordingly by incapacitating the thief with nothing more than a left hook to the temple.

"Wow… didn't know you had moves like that…" Takahiro softly said.

"Neither did he."

"Good job everyone!" Sarah shouted, as she usually does, as she congratulated group 3 for their impressive work.

After their success, they were rewarded with early sleep, something that the instructor needed as well, even though they went to sleep around 2 in the morning.

Sleeping in was something necessary for group 3, but something that Sarah couldn't do, as she only ran on four to five hours per day.

It doesn't take long for her to fall asleep either, in fact, she does so on command, something you can call a gift.

Group 3 will be staying in Sarah's basement for the month-long assignment, a place where she kept nothing more than empty space.

Sarah usually started her mornings with a nice cold glass, well she preferred to drink straight from the carton, of milk.

She opened the fridge and did the predictable, by reaching for the carton of milk.

Doing so, she soon realized in a somewhat barbaric fashion, that the carton was empty.

"Eh?" This did not make the morning any better for her, or the youths of group 3 for that matter.

"Who drank all the damn milk?!" Sarah shouted, loud enough that it even awoke the neighbors.

This did awake Mitsugi, who was the culprit of the missing milk, but the others were still unconscious from the previous night.

"That's it—" Sarah said as she grasped a whistle that hung around her neck, and she didn't hesitate to blow it enough times to wake the sleeping giants, then continued, "—Get up! Get up! Get up!"

The youths didn't wake up in happiness, but this was something they were used to in just their two weeks with the infamous Sarah Sojiko.

"What happened…" Morna softly sputtered.

"All you kids got a new task for the morning!" Sarah shouted.

"What is it…" Ramani grudgingly replied.

"I don't hear you right, I think ya should put more enthusiasm into what ya said!"

"She does this to us every morning... apparently someone drinks all the milk before the morning comes..." Sofia thought.

"I can't control myself…" Mitsugi thought.

"You guys are gonna go food shopping and you all need to be back in 2 hours!"

"It's six o'clock... what time should we start?" Asami softly asked.

"Fine... fine... I'll give you all 5 minutes to get ready."

"5 minutes each?" Takahiro reluctantly asked.

"I'm not that generous... just 5 minutes... oh wait, now it's 4."

"How do we get there?" Mitsugi asked, his voice was free from the morning pitch.

"You have these things called legs… USE EM!"

"This is torture…" Mitsugi thought.

"Don't make me count... you should be out by now."

Sarah gave them a list as they left within five minutes for the supermarket.

Most of them were still in their pajamas, but that didn't matter as completing this task was far more important than appearances.

It took them about thirty minutes to get to the supermarket on foot, and another fifty minutes to get everything on Sarah's grocery list, which didn't come with its own difficulties as Mitsugi treated this place like an amusement park.

It took them another five minutes to purchase fresh breakfast for Sarah as well.

They walked back with all of the groceries and the fresh breakfast in thirty-three minutes, arriving with barely two minutes left on the clock.

This, and soreness from yesterday's tasks, was more than enough to completely exhaust group three entirely.

They were allowed to go back to sleep once the task was done, which they didn't spare much time doing.

"How much more do we have of this…" Mitsugi gasped.

"Two more weeks…" Asami said.

"I don't know if I can take much longer…" Ramani said.

"I can't imagine what the others are going through if this is what we get in Block B…" Morna said.

The others had their own trials to complete, some that were much closer to group three's than others, but nonetheless, Block A quite literally had the most difficult task of them all, something that wasn't a training exercise or errands, it was something that was more serious than that, and something that requires maximum effort from all individuals who found themselves stuck within that specific predicament.

A murderer was at large, and it was up to them, and their proctor, to solve the crime and bring justice to the families of the victims.

Can they accomplish such an objective, or was it simply too much for the youths with no real field experience prior to this task.