Mission 3, Part 1

The deep blue tone of the van was reminiscent of the ocean, Fushimi thought, before he was shoved into the van with a “get in!”

“I invited him here. Show proper manners.” A voice as clear as tinklings of jade came from inside.

“Y-yes sir.”

“You are dismissed.”

The clansman gave Fushimi an intimidating stare before he closed the sliding door from outside. After staring him back, Fushimi took a good look inside the van again. “What in the world…” He commented inwardly.

The s.p.a.cious interior was enough for 3 rows of seats, yet seats were removed to lay tatami on the floor. A tokonoma was set in the very back, decorated with a hanging scroll of waka poem written in calligraphy. While there’s a teakettle steaming in front of the tokonoma, the aircon maintained a cool refreshing temperature. A traditional j.a.panese fragrance made his nose twitch a bit.

“It’s sandalwood. Are you not fond of this scent?” Said the man sitting perfectly straight in seiza on the tatami, the Blue King, Munakata Reisi.

“Not really. Not liking it nor disliking it.”

“Indifferent, I see. What a shame. Please, take your shoes off and step in.”

“Don’t you want me to disarm today? I have my hidden knives as usual.”

“That was only formality. You are not so ruthless as to make a surprise attack alone, nor do you have the reason to.”

Munakata openly showed the composure of a king knowing he can’t be killed by merely a clansman. Fushimi tug his shoelaces loose roughly, kicked his shoes off at the step of the van, and placed them next to Munakata’s long boots.

“… What is this?”

“Jigsaw puzzle. Haven’t you seen one?”

“I have.”

Something piled up in front of Munakata’s knee. On a closer look, those were jigsaw puzzle pieces, cut rather small. There must be a lot to pile so high.

“That’s not what I’m asking. This van seems to be an official vehicle. Is this puzzle related to your work?”

“No. It’s my hobby.”

“Do you have too much free time or what?”

“I bring my hobbies to workplace because I don’t have free time.”

Fushimi began to suspect that Munakata is actually looking forward to his talking back.

“Great timing. Here. I’ll share you half of these. Please piece together as many as you can. Feel free to sit at ease. No need to be formal.” Munakata divided the pile of puzzle pieces, and shoved half of it in front of Fushimi.

“Hah? Why should I do that?”

“Well, is this not your forte? Pardon me. I shouldn’t have asked then.”

Seeing Fushimi provoked by his teasing and claimed to be good at it, Munakata cracked a smile in satisfaction. Then he took a piece from his pile which now resembled a half-eroded sand dune. Holding it between two fingers, he gave it a glance, and placed it on a spot on the tatami with a soft “pachi” sound.

With a sulky look, Fushimi sidled and put his knees together, sitting in seiza.

“I don’t suppose you’d call me here just to help with the puzzle. For the Blue King to privately invite a Homra member, it’ll cause a problem if word gets out.”

“I don’t see that stopping you from coming here.”

Munakata replied without looking away from his puzzle. Fushimi pouted his lips and remained silent. The soft “pachi” sound of Munakata continuously placing pieces on the tatami, together with the clinking of the teakettle’s lid pushed by the steam, created an ancient and elegant atmosphere which made Fushimi felt like he’s no longer in a van of the Blue’s.

“I heard that you were the one who leaked us information on Minato Akito leaving Suoh’s kingly domain.”

“I did it to steer Homra clear of trouble, not for your clan. Please don’t get the wrong idea. Nor do I intend to use this as a bargaining chip on betraying to your side.”

“Ha ha. I never thought of taking it that way. It’s not worthy enough for a chip. Besides, there is always a possibility for traitors to betray again. I wouldn’t even consider placing that kind of person at hand. One can never be too careful.”

Weren’t you the one who said a hidden weapon user would be a handy chess piece? Of course Fushimi wasn’t antic.i.p.ating to be recruited. Still, being told “you are not needed” in his face was displeasing.

“What’s more, we are now bogged down thanks to you. When Minato Brothers stayed in Bar Homra, at least we knew their whereabouts. Now we have no clue, let alone capture them. As a result, what you did was no more than buying time for Minato Hayato to recover. On top of that, in the past week, we have been receiving reports on Strains getting attacked for no reason. All victims are ‘Risk 3’ level Strains, which means they are not subjects of restriction, but are kept tabs on due to their high risk for causing problems. They all stated that the a.s.sailants were a duo calling themselves "Scepter 4’. A victim remembered the duo’s emblem clear enough to draw this.”

Munakata lifted his hand from the puzzle to take out his PDA, and slid it across the tatami to Fushimi. He looked at the hand-drawn emblem shown on screen, noticing some slight differences from the one painted on the side of this van.

“This was the Scepter 4 emblem during Habari Jin’s era.”

Hearing the explanation, Fushimi lifted his gaze from the PDA.

“Habari Jin’s Scepter 4 is the one and only authentic "Scepter 4’ to carry out the duty of supervising Strains. So they declared. I am really hated. Unlike me, Suoh is adored by his clansmen.”

“Which ain’t that different from monkeys gathering around their leader.”
After blurting out this, he felt that it’s pointless venting.

“I see. Do you mean this is like animal instinct?”

“……” It’s not cool to criticize his own clan in front of another king. To distract himself from his awkward feeling, Fushimi reached for the puzzle pieces in front of him. “What in the world?” He commented inwardly again. The pattern on the pieces were hard to tell apart, being nearly all grey.

“Didn’t this come with a reference picture?”

“I threw it away by mistake. Well, since it’s a World Heritage Site, I can work it out by memory. It’s Sagrada Família.”

“The one in Barcelona.”

“It’s still under construction. This puzzle was made with a photo taken in 2001, cut to ten thousand two hundred and ninety-two pieces in total, and will take up the s.p.a.ce of two whole tatami when finished.”

“…Ten thousand.” An overwhelming difficulty on an overwhelming theme. What did you throw the reference picture away for?

Following the standard tactics of jigsaw puzzles, Fushimi sorted out the edge pieces from the pile. He began to a.s.semble the frame, although feeling a bit annoyed that Munakata was watching him with evident satisfaction.

“Very skillful. Have you seen the real thing?”

“I have seen photos on internet. Not sure if those were taken before or after 2001 though.”

In junior high, Yata brought a jigsaw puzzle one day, shouting, “Let’s play this!” They worked on it together. It was a 1000-piece puzzle, which was nothing compared to the 10000-piece puzzle here, but was challenging enough for starters. Fushimi got so devoted that he finished it overnight without resting. Yata was gone before he noticed, leaving him a message on PDA, “you look totally absorbed in it, so I went home first.” Didn’t you bring this because it’s a picture of a sports car you like? Fushimi thought, and lost interest in it.

“I can see you getting the hang of things real quick, ever since childhood.”

Munakata’s words made Fushimi’s hand twitched and froze for a moment. But he went back to work quietly. The soft “pachi” sound faded into the teakettle’s clinking. Munakata didn’t mind not getting any responses, and continued.

“You must be doing well in school too. Basically, the teachers weren’t able to teach you anything new. People who are inferior can take superior position merely because they are older. You felt discontent and depressed putting up with this, right? In other words, you hope to be led only by someone who’s overwhelmingly more outstanding than you.”

“… Talk about letting loose a torrent of eloquence.”

Fushimi tried ignoring, until the talk reached an intolerable degree. He tossed the piece he was holding. It bounced off the tatami with a soft sound.

“Those talking nonstop like some know-it-all are who I most…”

He raised his head, ready to make an a.s.sertion, but was struck speechless.

Puzzle pieces in front of Munakata were scattered here and there. Unlike how Fushimi started with connecting adjacent pieces, he placed them on the tatami with adequate s.p.a.ce between, regardless of the shape, as if he’s overlapping the pieces with a picture beneath.

Munakata took another piece, checked its four sides quickly, and placed it in the middle of nowhere. The piece stayed there perfectly, like it knew that’s the place it belonged to. The way he placed it without the slightest doubt can be a.s.sociated with a meijin making every move confidently, with the result of theGo match planned in his head.

“What… are you doing?” Fushimi asked, flabbergasted.

“Actually, I lied about throwing away the reference picture. It’s printed on the tatami. Can’t you see it?”

Eh? Fushimi got down, bringing his face close to the tatami. As he adjusted his gla.s.ses for a better look, he heard a light chuckle above his head.

“Pardon me. I didn’t expect you to take it seriously.”

“……!?” Fushimi felt his face blushing. “… I’m so going to kill you.” He glared upwards. Of course Munakata still smiled in composure.

“This puzzle was cut with the same cutting dies as another puzzle I finished before. It didn’t take me long to notice. But returning this would seem immature, so I kept it. Ma.s.s-produced merchandise can only get this far. I should try a custom-made pure white puzzle of twenty thousand pieces. … Now, to disclose the secret of how I do this.”

He picked up another piece, with playfulness on his face.

“I remember the pieces’ shapes. That’s why I know their place. There’s nothing more to it.”

With a quick glance on the piece’s sides, again he placed it in the middle of nowhere, without hesitation.

“Are you serious?” Fushimi can’t help but suspect that he’s tricking him again. Remember the shapes, he said. But these were barely different in shape. Not to mention more than 10,000 pieces in total. It’s like saying, “The secret behind this magic is… magic!” Who can accept this kind of explanation?

Then for quite a while, Munakata seemed to have forgotten that Fushimi was here, or he simply paid no mind to him. He repeated the process of picking up a piece, glancing for a second, and placing it on the tatami. Fushimi had nothing to do. He felt can relate to how bored Yata was that night.

Yet before he knew it, he no longer felt bored, but instead captivated by what’s happening in front of his eyes.

Only several hundreds of the 10,000 pieces were placed on the tatami, but he gradually can see the completed picture. The pieces looked similar separately. But when they were set on the spot where they should be, amazingly the image around them can be extrapolated as well. Together they brought out the whole picture.

The pa.s.sion of the deceased genius architect was expressed through the countless stone statues composing Bible stories, and the numerous spires piercing into the slightly cloudy sky of Western Europe. The elaborate construction of Sagrada Família was disclosed in front of Munakata. Rather than acc.u.mulated piece by piece, it’s more like hundreds of craftsmen each waving his mallet, constructing and evenly expanding the scenery.

Munakata wasn’t considering where to place the piece, but knew beforehand where the piece belonged.

Amazing…

Surprised by what he was about to mutter, Fushimi bit his tongue.

“Simply turning away is a thing anyone can do. Don’t you agree? If the world bores you, why not construct it yourself? Reconstruct the order, principle, and framework of the world with your own hands.”