***
Eiichi stood out by the street in a pair of dark jeans and a black pullover hoodie he just thankfully happened to have stashed away in his closet. The sun had gone down an hour ago, and the lights from inside the fast food place and other nearby shops shone out into the street.
Noda had responded to his text shortly after he left, so he figured she would have been here by now. He was working his way through another cigarette when she appeared from up the walkway. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing as she trotted her way up to him.
She was wearing a hoodie too. It was light and obviously not meant for the cold, but the color was not even close to what he had specified. A bright, baby blue hue stared him in the face along with a pair of bright gray bike shorts.
“Didn’t you hear me!? I said wear something black!”
She jerked her fists down and fumed at him, “This was the darkest thing I could find!”
She looked like she was going out shopping with her friends. Why didn’t she just go all the way and bring a flashing neon sign that said STAKEOUT. As if it couldn’t stand out anymore, there was a large character print of a teddy bear face that nearly covered the whole front.
Eiichi frowned. “I’m starting to get a better idea of just what kind of girl you are...”
Noda’s cheeks blossomed a vibrant pink. “Don’t give me that judgmental look!”
Aside from her clothes, she had a large, black satchel hanging next to her hip.
“You’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb. Let’s just hope the low visibility will help things.”
“If anything, I’ll just look like an innocent girl out for a walk who happened upon a mugger. You’ll get locked up and I can decide when to post your bail.”
“Ha ha...”
It didn’t take long to get to the school.
Save for a few fluorescent blue lights along the walls, the school looked as dark and unpopulated as it should be at this hour. The stone bases for the perimeter gates were low, but the gates themselves were high. Fortunately, there were tower-like posts that were large and also made of brick, which the fencing ran between. Each of these bases had a ledge that was high enough it would require a little climb for one, but for two people trying to get in, it would not require as much work.
“Let’s be careful getting in here. If we get caught, it’s gonna look like we’re the ones breaking in,” Eiichi muttered as he approached the gate.
“We are, wise guy.”
“Just get over here so I can give you a boost.”
Eiichi knelt down with his hands cupped together.
Noda stopped. “Really? Uh, I dunno’...”
“Don’t make it weird. Come on.”
“O-Okay...”
Noda edged up to him and placed one tennis shoe in his hands while balancing herself on his shoulders.
“D-Don’t look, okay,” she stuttered.
“What am I going to look at?”
“Oh, you are just asking to get kicked in the head.”
For a girl like Noda, who wasn’t used to this kind of moving around, she didn’t have much trouble once Eiichi got her up to where she could hoist herself over the post and place a foot in the cramped space between two rods of fencing. She clambered to the other side and hung from the ledge again before letting go, but stumbled and fell on her butt after hitting the ground. Eiichi used the fence to pull his other hand closer to the ledge, and soon jumped down to join Noda.
They found the spot, and from where they were, they could clearly see the dumpster, the concrete pad and the back door to the computer science building, which was closed.
“Dammit...no one there,” Eiichi hissed.
“Maybe we’re early.”
“Or late.”
“Nu-uh, club activities went late today, I was one of the last to leave. There was still too much happening on campus for them to try anything.”
Eiichi looked over at her. ‘She’s being overly cautious about something. Maybe it’s just her nerves.’
Noda opened up her satchel and began taking items out. It was pretty dark where they were, but Eiichi thought he saw her take out her camera and some kind of stand, along with a few other indiscriminate items.
“What’s that?” he asked.
Noda had grabbed her camera and began attaching something to it.
“It’s a super high resolution extension for my camera. I also have a backup cam in here, a compact tripod, and a night optics adapter.”
“I was wondering what you had in that bag. You come pretty well equipped for a stakeout, even if your wardrobe needs some work.”
He couldn’t see her face very well, but based on her output, she had been smiling at this.
“So now what?” she asked.
“Phones on silent, right?”
Noda checked hers to be certain. “Yup.”
“I guess we wait...”
Eiichi P.I., Vol. 1 Page 7