Chapter 1: The Lonesome Alley
It's a cold Tuesday evening, as the gentle sounds of rain tapping at the window sill by her bed force Ougi Oshino to open her eyes. Ougi groggily rouses herself from her messy bed and sits up, yawning loudly as she tugs down her pink camisole that had ridden up from her tossing and turning, over her pink underwear. Ougi rubs her tired aching shoulders, then rubs her warm palms over her eyes. She then leads her hands down her face, feeling her own eye bags as she frowns.
"Yet another all-nighter," She sighs dejectedly.
Being in the police force for many years, Ougi had hoped her body would have been accustomed to the workload she subjects herself to daily. Spending hours on end typing up reports and always traveling, however, had really begun taking a toll on her body. Ougi stretches out her pale legs, keeping in line with her daily routine of massaging her sore muscles, and cracks her knuckles.
"Crime never takes a break and neither should I, I suppose…"
Ougi rises from her bed, tugging on the edge of her pink underwear so they don't stick to her, and shuffles her way into her small kitchen. The space in her small modest apartment had never been big enough for a proper table, but Ougi hardly had guests over anyway. Still, the emptiness had always given her a recurring unsettling feeling.
"Reminds me too much of those times messing around with Araragi-Senpai…maybe I should get a cat."
Ougi turns to a cabinet and opens it, searching inside for the required materials for coffee. Ougi grabs a couple filters and a cup, then turns on the coffee machine sitting on a small counter by the refrigerator, setting it to brew herself a cup of her favorite black coffee.
It had been 7 long years since she had last seen him, the fun mysteries she had explored with him together in her youth, such as resolving the case with Sodachi Oikura is what had led Ougi down to her career path as a police detective, though it did help she was friends with the son of the directors, she had garnered a respectable reputation on her own as an efficient detective straight out of the academy, now a famous detective by her own right, she had been a popular topic of conversation among Naoetsu's Police Department.
A notification sound from her personal computer terminal snaps Ougi from her contemplation. Ougi takes a large sip of her steaming cup of coffee and approaches her computer to read her emails. Skimming through her emails as she does every morning, she notices a new assignment had arrived, a case about murder in a nearby Prefecture.
'A Murder? That's a rare occurrence in this area.' Ougi begins to look over the case file when she hears a horn blaring from a car outside, startling her.
'Oh that must be Hanekawa, guess I better put on my clothes…'
Ougi finishes the last of her cup and rushes off to her small, one door closet. Ougi picks out a white business shirt with a black tie and a grey pair of fitted slacks. Ougi dresses quickly and grabs her trademark worn blue trench coat with the long sleeves from her coat rack by the door and begins putting on a pair of black shoes. Ougi raises her collar to keep out the cold and opens the door to greet a ragged Tsubasa Hanekawa, standing in a brown suit, with a matching skirt.
"I'm so sorry Ougi-chan! I'm terribly late!" Hanekawa bows repeatedly in apology.
"Don't worry Hanekawa-san, I just got up a moment ago," Ougi closes her apartment door behind her and reaches into her coat pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a box of matches.
"Fill me in on the case on the way there." Ougi sticks a cigarette in her mouth and lights it with a match.
"You didn't read the file?" Hanekawa coughs from the cigarette smoke Ougi begins emitting as they begin walking to her car.
"I don't know anything, Hanekawa-san. It's you who knows." Ougi taps her cigarette and the ashes fall on the ground.