Mission Info:

Morning time and the rooster crowed, the repressed sun from the nearby window struggled to fight past the mists of the city. Groaning and stretching to the morning light, my muscles tensed and I became more and more aware of my surroundings. Once vision became more clear I looked over at the clock on the bedside table, which was little more than a rudimentary sundial pointing at a scrawling on the desk it sat next to indicating the time.  It was about 5am. I liked mornings like this, mornings where I knew I had stuff to do, but my early morning wake up times meant that I had some time each morning for myself to take up with relaxing and taking things very slowly.

Rising up out of bed I headed down stairs still in my nightgown and flipped the stove on, moving to the fridge to allow the stove to warm up. Taking four eggs, some bacon, ramen noodles, and several uncooked wantons I gingerly walked to the kitchen bench, grabbing a pot and began filling it with water.  I brought it to a boil and threw in the ingredients with some leeks as well as putting the bacon and eggs in to the now simmering pan. Not long after fifteen minutes and some careful preparation, breakfast was served. The aroma of the cooked eggs and meat wafted up into my nose.  This was how I woke up well: to the smell of cooked food.

As the food hit my tongue I sighed contently, spending some time enjoying the meal and furthering my delicious consumption of the food. One final prayer to my ancestors and I got changed into my clothes.  Headed out the door into the cold morning wind at about 7 o'clock, waving goodbye to the hotel manager as I left.

Today however was not going to be the average day, I was tasked with helping out around the academy. It seemed like this would be an easy enough task in and of itself, though the scope of which I had completely underestimated. Reaching the destination of my task I walked into Class 1B and entered slowly, bowing before entering the classroom.

"Shimazu, Naoko reporting for work, sir."  I said looking up to the instructor of the class. The academy students were dead silent, pencils to paper and working on what seemed to be some sort of exam. The teacher moved forward and told me to ensure that there was no cheating of any kind taking place and that if any questions were asked, that I would handle them. The Teacher had another class he had to attend due to a sickness in the staff which was why he needed to bring me on as a reliever.  They had twenty-two minutes left to complete the test and I would also be tasked with collecting, organizing, and marking the scores appropriately.

Nodding, I did not address the class but stood in front of them and smiled to the instructor as he left the classroom. Looking back to the students and catching a couple of inquisitive glances, I smiled back at them which pressured them back to their paper.

Ten minutes passed without incident as several kids moved to the front of the class silently to hand in their paper.  I took them and allowed the students to leave the class.  They ran out the door quickly to their freedom, echoes of their celebration for getting out early being heard from the doorway.

Sitting down and looking over the paper, I noticed something interesting about this one test. One hundred questions, all multiple choice... now I knew why the teacher had me grading these tests.  I had had a feeling that the teacher just wanted to dodge the paperwork. I smiled awkwardly at the sudden realization of the plot at hand.

Going through an unused test with a separate pencil I marked the right answers onto a separate sheet. I rapidly moved through each student's test as I could almost remember the sequence of answers only after having graded the first few. Hours past and I marked the last one, looking up as the instructor walked back into the room asking if the grading was coming along well enough.

"Indeed it is," I responded, handing him the graded sheets.  "All graded and alphabetized by their surnames.  Have a good day, sir.

The teacher took the sheets from my hand and began to look them over.  I turned and walked away, muttering "Lazy" as I left.  This man didn't need the help, he could have just done the grading later at home.  This had been a waste and I regretted helping out someone who could have helped themselves.

792/700 MISSION COMPLETE