The Sound Empress: Chapter 6
Brief synopsis: Kari, disguised as Jung Moon, attempts to join the Korean Origin Force. This plan fails quite badly as the secretary at the recruitment office manages to see through the disguise.
It had taken a few days, but I had finally gotten all of the pieces of the costume together for my “role” as Jung Moon. The idea is that Jung would be a kind of hipster punk dude with a bit of a wild streak. This character would wear a light hoodie, with the hood always up, concealing some crimson red hair, a pair of sneakers, and a ripped up pair of jeans. All of this felt quite wrong to me. For I usually try to keep my clothes very neat, tidy, and well kept, disposing of them properly when an article of clothing becomes tattered or worn. Also, the clothes did not fit right. Women tend to have a different shape than men, so stuff that would ordinarily fit nicely on me didn’t feel right with this outfit.
To go along with the outfit, some accessories were purchased. The most notable thing was a pack of cigarettes, which I never touched in my life, until now. As I didn’t want to tempt myself, I merely opened the pack up to reveal the cigarettes inside, but I didn’t put a lighter in. I knew better than to smoke and ruin my health…
I also took the jewelry out of my ears. Jewelry is often viewed as a symbol of femininity, and I wanted to eliminate anything that would cause someone to identify me as Kari.
Another thing I did was to practice speaking in a low, gruff voice. This is a particularly difficult part to get right. My voice is naturally high pitched, so even talking in a low register for me would sound quite high to most. The trick I found was to basically sound like a chainsmoker, by forcing a lot of air out when I talk, while keeping my voice quiet. That way, I could control the pitch better. It wasn’t perfect, by any means. But I thought it was convincing enough.
As mentioned previously, I had gotten the handwriting down pat. It cramped my hand before to write super compactly, but after a while practicing, it felt almost natural.
It was now time to head to Yamato. This would be the big performance, so to speak. Can I remain in this character long enough to become part of the Korean Origin Force?
Since I knew the bus and rail system would be packed, I decided to walk over to Yamato from my apartment. This way, I could lower the chances that people would make contact with me, especially people that know me, which could cause me to break character. That is something I can’t afford to do, since the country is at stake.
It took me a solid two hours to walk the distance from my house to the center of Yamato, which is at the train station. Now, to look for the recruitment office. What did Nari say to me about where the office was?
I had to recall for a moment, whilst continuing to move forward. I didn’t want to stand in one spot for too long which could cause people to question why I am just standing there. I could then hear her voice in my head: “Once you are at the center of town, walk down the Odakyu Enoshima line towards the sports center. Make a right on the street immediately past the sports center. Then walk down until you see a long building with a garage door on it. There will be some Korean symbols on the door which will say, ‘Join Here.’ That is the site of the recruitment center in Yamato. Note: if you see a convenience store, then you will have gone too far and will need to turn around.”
I followed those instructions carefully, turning down the correct alleyway, and then walked down the block. About halfway down was the building that Nari had mentioned. It was a long building with a garage door in the front, suitable for a compact truck. On top of said door was a bunch of Korean characters that translated to “join here”, as Nari had mentioned.
This must be the place, I thought.
I slowly approached the door, and then when I was close enough to touch it, the door began to open. About 30 seconds later, the lobby of the building was visible. It was a spacious room, with plenty of space for a company to store important files, and goods that needed to be shipped out. Upon the door fully opening, a forty-something year old man, with a glass eyeball, beckoned me to come in, so that he could close the door again. I was still looking around. Then that same man said something in Korean, urging me to come in before any law enforcement could come in. I obliged. Then the door closed, just as slowly as it opened.
I walked up to the man. He then asked me, in a somewhat stern manner:
“Greetings. What is your purpose here?”
I coolly said in character, “I am here, as I am interested in joining your group. I feel your group could provide the strong leadership Japan needs.”
“Follow me then.”
The man, who was giving me the creeps with that glass eye, with a silver iris, directed me up a flight of stairs. We then came to a room that was painted white and had a few glass windows. The man then talked to a person behind the glass windows, which I could not see:
“Psst. We got ourselves a potential new recruit here.”
Some time passed. I was worried that they were going to ask me to put my hood down. But then a form came out, along with a pen.
“Fill this out, then when you are done, come back to the window. We will then ask you a series of questions, to see if you are indeed worthy to join our ranks.”
I took the form and pen and sat as far away from him as possible. I couldn’t really stand his presence. In fact, I wanted to scream, to scare him, but that would reveal my real voice, which would be bad.
The form was quite thorough, asking me for my own information, my political leanings, and other personal information. I felt quite dirty, writing down lies. While I was filling this out, I took pictures of the form, so that I could potentially share it with Nari and the contacts that she knows. I had to be very sneaky with this, as there was a camera scanning the room I was in. If the camera caught me printing out their form, the group would suspect that I am a spy.
After about 10 minutes, I completed the form. I got up and walked back to the window. I knocked on the glass, so that I could get the attention of the secretary that was behind the glass. Then I put the completed form and pen through the hole in the glass.
Another bit of time passed. The secretary, who looked like the greeter’s kid, carefully reviewed the application. Then he came back:
“Could I see some identification, please?”
Identification? Oh shoot. I didn’t think they would go so far as to check my ID. I didn’t create a fake ID for this character, as forging such a document is illegal.
“Sorry, I don’t have it. I left it at home.”
The secretary grew quite angry. Then he asked me:
“Ok then. Do you at least consent to having your picture taken, as I can check it against a database of people?”
I gulped a bit. This was going to be the nail in the coffin, I thought. However, I didn’t see a way to avoid this. So I nodded yes.
The secretary pointed a webcam camera towards my face, through the glass. He told me to keep my eyes straight on the camera. A flash came, and the picture was taken.
“Thank you, now just wait while I check the database.”
I waited for a minute or so. The secretary then broke the silence, with some bad news:
“Unfortunately I could not find a match for Jung Moon in my database, using the image I took. Do you mind if you put your hood down, and then I’ll take another picture of you?”
I again nodded yes. I was hoping this wasn’t going to happen. I slowly took my hood off of my head. Upon doing so, the secretary was not pleased at all:
“Erm…”
I was unsure what that meant.
“You had marked yourself as a man on the form, but you look like a woman. You should know that we don’t really accept women in this group.”
“Really? I could really help your group out.”
The secretary didn’t seem to buy this. I was growing more nervous by the second, as the secretary continued to pressure me.
“Are you a trans person?”
Why would a sexual orientation matter here, I thought. Shouldn’t a group be inclusive of everyone? I decided to remain silent.
“Well, are you, or are you not?”
I continued to remain silent. There was no reason for him to know this. The secretary grew increasingly impatient, and eventually the greeter hit me with his elbow. The blow was strong enough to knock me down. The secretary then heckled me:
“You are a weak man. I can tell that you are lying here. Please, give me your identification card.”
My face was quite red, showing that I was intimidated. He had the upper hand at this point. I thought to try to fight the greeter, but that would destroy any sort of chance I had to join the force. Instead, I ended up submitting to his demand. I reached into the pocket of my hoodie and pulled out my wallet, which had my identification card. I pulled out the card and gave it to the greeter. It was a big mistake on my part, but I didn’t want to be hit again. He got furious at me, and basically yelled at me:
“You aren’t Jung Moon! You are Kari Nakajimi, a woman! You lied to me, and we do not tolerate lying in our organization. So, I suggest you get out of here, before I pulverize you.”
The greeter threw my ID back at me out of pure rage. I put it away at once, got back on my feet, and then ran out of the room like a raging bull. I would have ran all the way out of the building, but the door was closed. I had to wait until the garage door opened, and then I could escape.
“Shoot!” I said to myself, in my normal voice. The group managed to see through my disguise and determine my true identity.
The walk back to my apartment was a long one. Not necessarily due to the distance (it was the same distance as the walk I did before), but rather the stir of emotions that was going through my head. I had spent a good amount of time on developing everything right, and I thought I had executed it well. But, I didn’t foresee everything that the people in the force would ask me. This had made me quite angry. I also was quite sad as well, as all the clothes and accessories cost me a good chunk of money. I didn’t like wasting money one bit, so this didn’t help my mood. To add further insult to injury, about halfway back to my apartment, rain began to fall, making me wet. Grr.
I got to my apartment, drenched. I had to get these clothes off and get rid of them. There was no reason for me to keep clothes made for a man. After I switched to an outfit that was more suitable for me, and threw out the outfit I fabricated for Jung in the trash, I decided to call Nari up, letting her know of the bad news.
“Hey Kari! Did you manage to join the Korean Origin Force?” Nari said, in a relatively joyous way.
“Unfortunately, no. Today was a long day for me, mentally.”
I sighed after that. I was quite fed up with what happened.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Tell me everything that happened while you were at the recruitment office, and maybe we can work something out that could help you in your goal.”
“So, after walking the entire way from my apartment to Yamato to reach the building that you told me to go to, I walked up to a door, which opened when I got close. A creepy man with a glass eyeball greeted me. Although I was somewhat freaked out by his appearance and his eye, I told him that I wanted to join the force. He seemed interested in me, so he led me to a small white room. This had a few windows, similar to windows that you might see in the theaters where you would buy tickets. Another man, who was the secretary and looked like the greeter’s son, gave me a form to fill out, which was several pages long. I have taken pictures of the form, if you are interested.”
“Yes, please send them.”
I switched the phone to speaker and then continued to tell her about the encounter, while I was going through my photo gallery on my phone and selecting the correct photos:
“The form took me about 10 minutes to complete, after which I returned it to the secretary. The secretary then requested me for some form of identification for Jung Moon. As I didn’t make a fake document for Jung Moon, I claimed that I left my identification card at home. The secretary clearly didn’t like that, but then asked if I consented to having my photo taken. Since I thought that I would not be allowed to join if I didn’t consent, I consented to having my photo taken. After the secretary took my photo with a webcam, he tried to match my photo to a person named Jung Moon. This proved fruitless. The secretary thought it couldn’t find a match, because I had the hood of my hoodie up. He asked me to put it down, which I obliged.”
“Seems like you were doing well here,” Nari said.
“Well, this is where the plan began to unravel. The secretary thought my face looked quite suspicious for a man. He then asked me if I was a trans person. I remained silent. He asked me again. Again, I remained silent. The greeter then intimidated me by hitting me, which knocked me down onto the floor, and then he demanded to see some identification. I had no choice but to submit to his demand, so I pulled out my real identification card, which had my real name on it, not Jung. The greeter was quite angry, threw the card into my face, and asked me to scram before I would be beaten up badly.”
“Damn, looks like they really vet their recruits.”
“You’re right. Then as I walked back from the recruitment office, rain began to fall, and I didn’t bring an umbrella. As a result, I got drenched.”
“Wow, that sounds like a rough day.”
“Rough? That’s putting it lightly. I wasted a bunch of money and I could get sick from being exposed to the elements.” I was quite peeved after saying that.
“Sorry to hear that. Anyway, I just got the pictures you sent me via email. I shall look at them now.”
There was a pause, as Nari looked at the photos I sent her on the computer. Some mmm’s and grunts could be heard, as she was looking at them. Then she came back, with some analysis:
“So some of these questions do make sense: name, age, address, education levels. Clearly, they want to know if the person is intelligent and could become a leader of the group in the future. But as I go on, the questions seem to get weirder. There are questions about political leanings, about the ability to kill people, and other things. From some of these questions, it looks like they are trying to recruit gunmen, or people that have radical ideologies.
Now, on these forms, there is usually a logo on them, giving the name of the company, the address of the place, and some sort of contact information. This is absent on this form.”
“So from this, do you think that the emperor could be in immediate danger?”
“Possibly. However, I haven’t heard anything from my contacts. So, I would presume that the emperor is safe right now. Perhaps you have heard something from the sound dispenser?”
“I haven’t really heard anything. I’ve been saving money for the outfit, and so I don’t really have any free money to get stuff from the sound dispenser.”
We then spoke for a little while after that, to help me relax, while I made dinner for myself. Once I had dinner prepared, I told Nari that I wanted some solitude, so I could come up with some next steps.
“I’ll send Nashi and some other people in the Cabinet Secretariat your pictures and they can perhaps go to work on trying to find out where the forms may have originated from. Until I contact you again, continue to find other methods to get information, and I’ll also send you some more money to buy more sound dispenser products. Bye!”
“Bye,” and I hung up. I then ate dinner, and then fell asleep, as I had a massive headache.