Metro pd closes to you
"So, you caught him?!" An old woman asked me.
"We did! He's a repeat offender, I'm glad we were able to get him off the streets quickly." I said.
I was sat on the police station talking to a civilian.
"I'm so relieved! Thank you, Officer Stone." She said.
"It's fine, there's no need to thank me. It's all because of your eyewitness info, Ma'am." I said.
"Is that so Freya?" Mr Sato asked.
"Mr Sato! How's everything going?" I asked.
"Great! Your advice really helped with our peeping-tom situation." He said.
I smiled "Thanks."
"I put that gravel down outside the window, like you said. Now, you can hear it whenever someone walks by. The peeping-toms don't come around anymore."
"I'm glad. I couldn't just let them get away with peeping on girls trying to take a bath." I said.
I worked in the West Arai Police Department Community Safety Unit, I was a detective. I was still a newbie, it was only my second year on the force. My father was in the military and my mother lived with him on a military base.
"We can rest easy with you around, Officer Stone." The old lady said.
"We're in good hands with a talented detective like you here." Mr Sato said.
I smiled "Thanks."
I didn't deal with serial killers, terrorists, the mafia or anything but I was helping create a safe community for people. Which was just as an important job. People came to me with their problems, and we'd work to solve them together. When I got more experience, I wanted to do more serious crimes.
The two civilians left my office, I was sat at my desk and started to tidy away files.
"Are you detective Stone?" Someone said as they came into my office.
I looked up and saw a young man stood in front of me, he had short wispy hair and a small beard on his chip. He wore a light grey suit with a pink tie and white shirt.
"Yes, may I help you?" I asked.
"You're going to the MPD." He said.
"Excuse me?"
"You're moving to the Metro Police Special Investigations Unit, today. Look." He said and handed me a piece of paper.
Who was this guy? I felt like I had seen him somewhere before.
"Notice of personnel transfer, Detective Freya Stone is hereby transferred from West Arai Community Safety Unit, to the Metropolitan Police Special Investigations: 2nd unit. Effective Immediately." I read aloud.
"See?" He said with a strange smile.
"Transferred? But I haven't heard anything about this." I said.
"Well yeah, obviously. This is my first time telling you." He said.
"Yeah but you can't just come in here and tell me this just out of the blue."
"It's a promotion. The guys in the Special Investigations are our best and brightest. They go after the big dogs." He said.
"Really?"
"Well, they're definitely a little eccentric too, though." He said with a laugh.
This was all happening so fast, but why now.
"Anyway, good luck!"
"Hey, wait. You haven't even told me your name." I said and stood up from my desk.
"Oh sorry about that. I'm Nomura, with the Metro PD. Remember that name. Bye." He said.
He left before I could say anything else.
A few hours later, I was stood in front of the Metro Police Department. The building looked huge! I couldn't believe I was standing here, I was quite excited. I was finally going to be working with the best detectives and I was going to be stopping the real bad guys.
A man in a three-piece suit approached me.
"What brings you to the MPD today?" He asked.
"I start work here today." I said.
"I see, well then you should hurry and go. Someone'll think you're suspicious, loitering around here." He said.
His gaze was intense but I matched it.
He then spun around and headed straight into the building, was he a detective as well?
I walked towards the building, guards stood by the main doors watching everyone as they entered the lobby. As I entered the lobby, I accidentally walked into someone.
"Oh sorry." I said.
I dumped into a tall, thin, dark haired man. He looked down at me with an expressionless face.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." I said.
He seemed to look right through me, as if he didn't even seem to notice me standing here.
"Zzzz..."
Was he snoring?
He moved closer to me and for the first time, he seemed to actually notice that I was here.
"Huh? Wha?" He said.
Hmmm… Ok… I started to take a step back from this creep. I just needed to get to the elevator and get away from him.
"Shusuke, good morning!" Someone called out.
I turned and saw a young man walking towards us, he looked a little young to be working here.
"Oh! A girl! Cool! I've never seen you before. Do you work here?" He asked.
"Yes, I just started today."
He grinned, he looked like a 12 year old and he wore casual clothes. I was surprised, everyone here seemed to wear suits. I even did my best and wore a black pants suit.
"Wait a minute… you.." he said suddenly.
He then moved from side to side, analyzing my face from all angles.
"You look like one of those.. um.. you know, those things!"
"What things?" I asked.
"What're they called? Uh.. you know, those.. Ok ok! I remember. A capybara!"
"Huh? A what?" I asked not sure if I heard him correctly.
I didn't know how to react, should I be angry or shocked?
"You see the resemblance too, right, Shusuke?"
"Yeah… I'm not really seeing it.." the sleep man said.
Just then, another man approached us. He had short brown hair, wore a greyish/brown suit with a white shirt and blue tie and wore glasses.
"What're you guys hanging out here for? You're going to be late for the meeting." He said.
"Katsuyuki! Check it out. Doesn't this girl look just like one of those things?" the young guy said.
"What is 'one of those things?'"
"Er.. what was it called? I just said it. You remember right?" the young man turned and looked at me.
"A capybara." I said.
"Yeah, yeah that's it. That!"
The new man then turned and looked at me.
"Who goes around comparing themselves to a capybara?"
"I wasn't, he said that I looked like one." I said and pointed to the young man.
These guys were weird, I just hoped that I wasn't working with them.
"Four." The new man said,
"Pardon?" I asked.
"There is it, Katsuyuki's rating." The young man said.
"Rating for what?" I asked.
"Hmm.. a four. Not bad, right Shusuke?" the young man said.
"Sleepy." Shusuke mumbled.
"Well, this isn't the time to be messing around. We're going to be late for the meeting. Let's go." Katsuyuki said.
"Oh yeah. We'd better hurry, Later Capybara." The young man waved enthusiastically before the three of them walked off.
That was weird. Oh well, I needed to hurry or I'd be late for my first day. I walked into the elevator and pressed the button for floor seven.
Someone then ran into the elevator, getting crushed in between the doors.
"What're ya trying to do, crush me?!" a man shouted.
I quickly pushed the button to open the doors and he stepped into the elevator.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you coming." I said.
He was a tall, well-built man with dark red hair.
"You've gotta look first. Psh.. no manners."
"Excuse me?!"
"What? You got somethin' to say about it?" he demanded glaring at me.
"Yeah I do! You say I've got no manners, what about you yelling at a stranger? I already said I was sorry to back off!" I shouted back and matched his glare.
He sneered at me and turned away.
The elevator doors closed the it started to move. He then took his phone out from his pocket.
"Whoa!" he shouted.
"What?" I asked.
"Yeah! Yesss! We won!" he cheered.
He jumped and punched the air with his right fist.
"Thank you! Thank you! Now the Tigers'll be able to make it all the way."
So he liked baseball?
"Today's gonna be an awesome day! I can feel it!"
Full of confidence, he sauntered off the elevator with a big smile on his face.
Whatever. Now, where do I go now. I reached into my handback and pulled out a piece of paper with direction to the office of my new department.
I walked down the hallway checking the signs on the doors as I went till I came to a door labeled, Special Investigations Unit.
I opened the door and came to a busy office, filled with desks and computers.
"Excuse me." I said to a man that was stood nearest to the door. He wore a dark suit and had his hair gelled back to perfection.
"Yes?"
"I'm detective Freya Stone from West Arai. Is this the Special Investigation Unit? I start work with you guys today."
"I haven't heard anything about that." A second man with glasses said.
"Really?" I asked.
"Oh I know, you must mean back there." A third man said and pointed to a door in the back of the room.
"Oh, over there, yeah." The first man said and also pointed.
"That's where they keep the really excellent detectives." The second man, his voice full of sarcasm.
"That whole room's way to elite for us. We're not even allowed in." the third said.
What was with their attitude? Did they not like them?
"You must be looking for them." The first said.
"You definitely don't belong here in 1st unit." The second on said.
"I mean, are you even really a detective?" the third asked.
"Of course I am! Who do you think you are?" I demanded.
"What's the 2nd unit thinking? Bring this little princess up here.." the first one said. "Oh well, it's not the 1st unit's problem."
"Whatever, excuse me." I said and shoved past them.
How arrogant could you get? I'll show them. I headed for the door they pointed to and on the do it said, Special Investigation 2nd unit.
This was it, I wondered what my new team were going to be like?
I opened the door and stepped into a room, there was a huge desk in the middle facing a huge window that looked out onto the city. It had six computers on the desk, each making a work space. Five men were stood around the table and a man with wavy black hair was stood by the desk. He had a cigarette in his mouth.
"Hey, may I help you? Are you the new kid?" He asked.
"Yes, I'm Freya Stone from the West Arai Police." I said.
"Yeah, we heard from Nomura. Hey everybody, the newbie's here!"
He turned towards the middle of the room and the five guys turned around. I froze and silently sighed, all five men were the men that I had met as I came here.
"What? Ms Suspicious from before?"
"Capybara?"
"The four?"
"No manners?"
The guy that was sleepy just stared at me.
"Well look at that, you guys are all buddies already." The man with the cigarette laughed.
"I wouldn't say that." I said.
I was going to be working with these guys? I couldn't believe it, talk about making a bad first impression.
"Ok anyway, the newbie's name is.. hey, what was your name again?" the man with the cigarette asked.
"Freya Stone, from the West Arai Community Safety Unit. It's nice to meet you all." I said and put on my best smile.
"Don't just stand there, hurry up and introduce yourselves." The man with the cigarette ordered.
He must be the boss.
"I'm Kazusa Hanai. So, you weren't a sketchy loiterer you're a detective." The first man said with a smile.
He was the first one that I met outside the building.
"Of course I am, I wouldn't be here otherwise." I said.
"My name's Yutaka Tennoji. I hate the Giants and girls with no manners." The second guy said.
He was the one who I met in the elevator. I could tell we weren't going to get along, I was tempted to poke my tongue at him but this wasn't the time or the place. I just smiled before turning to the next guy.
"I'm Eiki Yachigusa. I'm actually from the NYPD. I'm here in Tokyo for training." The young guy said with a beaming smile.
He was the one who compared me to an animal earlier.
"It's nice to meet you." I said.
He then caught me off guard with a kiss on my hand.
"Just a little New York-Style greeting for you!"
"Um.. thanks." I said and pulled my hand back.
"Ok, ok that's enough. I'm Katsuyuki Kyobashi. But you've probably heard my name around before, you don't seem that clueless." The next guy said.
He was the one that rated me a four. Was he a famous detective or something?
"Uh. Let's see and lastly there's Asano!" he moved to go back to his seat and called Asano over.
"I'm Shusuke Asano."
He was the one who looked like he was sleeping downstairs, he kind of creeped me out.
"And I'm Hiroshi Kirisawa." The man with the cigarette said.
"Kirisawa's the head of the 2nd unit." Hanai said.
"He's our boss." Tennoji said.
I nodded "I look forward to working with you all."
They all remained silent.
"Did I say something wrong?" I asked.
"Come on guys, give her a better reaction than that!" Kirisawa said.
"Boss, are you sure this girl's a detective?" Hanai asked.
"Why was she transferred here?" Tennoji asked.
"Hmm. I dunno." Kirisawa said.
What?
"She doesn't seem like a detective, does she?" Hanai said.
"Do you have some kind of special skill? Like, are you a great shot or an explosives expert or something?" Tennoji asked.
It felt like I was being interrogated.
"Yeah, what's your thing?" Kirisawa asked.
"My thing?" I asked.
"We're not asking if you do impressions or something." Kyobashi said.
"Yeah I know. I have experience in the military, I was in the army for 12 months." I said.
"Really? What did you do in the army?" Hanai asked.
Before I could answer, we received a transmission over the PA system.
"Emergency Dispatch! Emergency Dispatch! We've received information regarding a bomb threat at Ohi Warf. All personnel move out."
The relaxed atmosphere in the room quickly disappeared, everyone immediately readied to move out.
"Let's go!" Kirisawa ordered.
"Yes sir!" We all said at once.
"Stone, you're coming to." He said.
"Yes sir." I said and followed everyone out of the room.
My first case with my new team, I was so excited I practically skipped out of the room.
We arrived at Ohi Warf.
"Hanai, what do we know about the bomb threat?" I asked.
"We received a tip-off from someone living in the area. Apparently, he went to investigate an illegally parked car and overheard someone discussing plans for a bombing." He said.
"Is that information reliable?" I asked.
"We have to act on the assumption that it is." He said.
I nodded.
"Everyone, split up and get ready to head in." Kirisawa said.
"Yes sir." The men all said.
"Stone, stay here. Wait for reinforcements and relay my orders to them." He said.
"Yes sir."
That was it? I wasn't going in? I tried my best not to look too disappointed, this was my first job after all. They probably wanted to go easy on me to begin with.
"Here, this two-way radio will connect you with boss." Kyobashi said.
"Thanks." I said and took the ear piece and pushed it into my right ear.
"Alright, everybody keep your eyes peeled, let's head in." Kirisawa ordered.
Everyone all headed off into different directions, they were completely different to before. They all looked so serious and very professional.
As I stood there waiting, a masked figure ran out of the shadows where I was standing. Before I could react, they grabbed me from behind and twisted my arms behind my back. I felt rope being tied around my wrists.
"Let me go!" I shouted and struggled.
Using my foot, I kicked upwards catching them in the groin. I heard them cry out and I was let go, I started to run forwards when a second figure in black jumped on top of me pinning me to the ground.
"Stop! Let me go!" I shouted and tried to struggle free.
The covered my mouth with their hand and I was dragged off.
I was pushed into a dark room and fell to the floor. I was helpless, I had both hands tied behind my back. Maybe if I wasn't tied up, I could take them both. They stood over me, they both wore black clothing, sun glasses and white masks that covered the bottom half of their faces.
"You're only making it worse for yourself by doing this. Reinforcements are on their way as we speak, there's nowhere for you to run." I said trying to sound confident.
One of the men took out a small box, he pressed a button on the box.
*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
The box started to make a noise.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
That noise sounded like a countdown, was it a bomb?
The second man then removed a floorboard, the first man placed the bomb on the floor before both of them disappeared down into the passageway.
"A secrete passageway?" I gasped.
I stood up and walked over to the box, there was a red countdown clock. There was only 5 seconds left on the clock. I spun around and started to run as fast as I could to get away from the bomb.
*Beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
BOOM!
"Freya! Wake up." A voice shouted in my ear.
Why were they so close? Who were they?
"Stone, open your eyes!" another voice shouted.
Waited, that was Hanai and Tennoji.
I tried to open my eyes but my body didn't respond, I felt completely numb. My head pounded, what happened to me?
"Ugh.." I groaned in pain as I tried to move my stiff body.
I finally managed to open my heavy eyelids, all the guys from the 2nd unit were gathered around me.
What happened? Oww!
I tried to move but pain thrashed up my right leg.
The room was filled with smoke and the smell of gunpowder. Was there a gun fight? Tennoji's face was immediately in front of my own, that's when I realized that he was holding me in his arms.
He was staring at me intensely. Why was I in his arms?
Ok just think for a minute, what was the last thing that I was doing? I was standing around waiting for something…
"Oh, you opened your eyes." Tennoji said.
He cupped my cheek in his hand and looked down at me.
"The explosion knocked you unconscious."
Explosion?! There was an explosion? I tried to speak but I my mouth just wouldn't work.
"You might be in shock." He said.
My head felt heavy, I couldn't focus on anything.
"Yo. You listen' to me?" he said loudly trying to catch my attention.
Everything was spinning, I tried my best to focus but everything was such a blur. What had happened? Why couldn't I remember?
"Hey! Hey! Getta hold of yourself."
He lightly slapped me on the cheek in an effort to rouse me.
I then heard Hanai's voice in the distance.
"Hey, quit slapping her around."
"Shut up. You don't get to give me orders." Tennoji said.
"Did she regain consciousness?" Asano asked.
"Yeah, but she's not responding to what I'm saying." Tennoji said.
"She must've taken a blow to the head." Yachigusa said.
"Or maybe Tennoji's scary face is just too much for her?" Kyobashi said and I swear I heard him laugh.
"Who you callin' scary?!" Tennoji said sounding angry.
Things finally to stop spinning, I could see Tennoji's face clearly in front of me and things started to come back to me. I was waiting for backup when I was attacked and two guys set off a bomb.
Kirisawa knelt down beside me and spoke in a calm voice.
"Stone, do you know who I am?" he asked.
"Yes, you're my new boss." I said.
"You were in an explosion. There are burns and cuts all over your body. An ambulance is on it's way. Before the ambulance gets here, I want you to tell me one thing." He said.
"What?" I asked.
"Do you remember what the perp looked like? You're the only one who saw the bomber up close. Do you remember anything about him?" He asked.
I thought back but things were still very fuzzy.
"Well-"
Before I could answer, an EMT came running towards us.
"Who's injured?" he asked.
They first tried to put me on a stretcher.
"I don't need that, I'm fine." I said and tried to stand.
My legs instantly gave way, Tennoji caught me before I hit the floor.
"Stone, take it easy." He hissed.
He stood up and lifted me up onto the stretcher before the EMT started to take me towards the ambulance.
This was so embarrassing.
"Hold up for just a minutes, we're police. She's a detective in our unit." Kirisawa said.
"Whatever it is, it'll have to wait. This is a race against time." The EMT said.
They pushed their through everyone and loaded me up into the ambulance.
"Miss Stone, you're going to be ok." The EMT said to me.
"Thanks." I said.
I was taken straight to hospital, the doctors gave me a full check over and ran a variety of tests. I ended up staying in hospital for a couple of days for observation. Burns covered my entire my body, the biggest was on my right leg. Nurses dressed and cleaned all of my wounds.
The entire time I was in hospital, I tried to run the whole event through my mind. I remember waiting for backup, those two guys attached me. I kicked one in the groin, they tied me up and brought me to the room. After that, all I remember is fire, sparks and feeling like I was floating in the air. But I had no memory of the perp's face, but why? Surely if that attacked me I should have seen them clearly. It didn't make any sense.
A few days later, I was finally released from hospital. No one from the unit came to visit me from hospital, I wondered if they had solved the case yet?
I was stood outside the building; this was going to be my first day back since the incident.
"Freya?" I heard Yachigusa say.
I turned around and saw him stood behind me, smiling.
"Hey Yachigusa."
"You don't have to be so polite, just call me Eiki." He said.
"Ok Eiki."
"Hmm.. that's better. You were released from hospital today, right? How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Just a few cuts and burns, nothing serious." I said.
"Nice. So you're on the case starting today." He beamed.
"Yes, I want to put the guy who did this to me behind bars!"
He laughed "That's the spirit." He laughed.
We headed inside the building together.
"I'm curious, what is the 1st unit?" I asked as we got into the elevator.
The just popped into my head as we came in, when I first came here I had to walk through their office to get to the 2nd unit. They were total jerks!
He remained silent for a moment "They're the ones that everyone respects, people say they are the best of the best. Us on the other hand.. well, everybody's always calling us 'The Misifts'." He said.
"The misfits?"
"Yeah and Yutaka, is basically the king of misifts. He used to be in the 1st unit, but he and the head of the 1st unit didn't get along so he was kicked out and transferred to the 2nd unit." He explained.
Yutaka Tennoji.. he was the one holding me when I woke up after the explosion.
"Yutaka is the number one case-closer in the whole metro PD. Kazusa is number two, by the way."
"Really? How about the other two, Asano and Kyobashi? What're their stories?" I asked.
"Shusuke Asano is cool. He's pretty quiet. You can never really tell what he's thinking. Katsuyuki is really smart, but he can be a little intimidating at first." He said.
They sounded like a good team.
"Don't get me wrong, we're a good team. I'm more or less use to Tennoji's unique charm at this point. And speaking of Tennoji, he visited you in the hospital a bunch of times."
"Really? That was nice of him." I said.
The elevator then dinged as it reached the 7th floor.
"Crap. It looks like we're going to be a little late." He said.
"For what? It's only 08:30am." I said.
"We have a morning meeting today, let's hurry!"
He broke into a run, I matched his paced and followed behind. We both entered the 2nd unit office.
"No clues?! How is that possible?!" Kirisawa said angrily as we came in. "Hanai, who owns the factory where the explosion took place?"
"The Suzuki shipping company did, but they went bankrupt. The factory has been abandoned for a decade." Hanai said.
"What kind of bomb was use?" Kirisawa asked.
"It was a homemade potassium chlorate bomb, the kind anyone could find out how to make on the internet." Asano said.
"I could pull up a list of people who've recently purchased large quantities of potassium chlorate but we still don't have a description for the perp." Kyobashi said.
"Tennoji, did anyone in the area catch sight of the perp as he was making his escape?" Kirisawa asked.
"No one." Tennoji said.
"What the hell is up with this case?!" Kirisawa said angrily.
"Good morning.." Eiki said timidly as we entered the room.
Kirisawa's face turned even angrier when he saw Eiki.
"You're late, Yachigusa!"
"I'm sorry." Eiki said.
I stepped forwards "It's my fault, I made him late." I said.
"Huh? Stone?"
Suddenly everyone's eyes are on me. Tennoji shot me a harsh look.
What was his problem?
"Stone, how are you feeling?" Kirisawa asked.
"Fine." I said.
"Well boss, there was one eyewitness." Tennoji said.
"Who?"
"Our key witness!"
Tennoji walked right over to me and grabbed me by my arm.
"Come on, let's get a description of this guy down on paper." He said. "You're our only clue."
He pulled me over to the desk and sat me down.
"I don't remember much. There were two guys, I'm pretty sure they were guys. They were quite tall, well built and no obvious female parts. But I don't their faces, I think they were wearing masks." I said.
"You didn't see their faces?" Kirisawa asked.
"No." I said.
"That's not very helpful. Goddammit, I thought you were s'possed to be a detective?!" Tennoji said angrily.
"At least you can tell us that it was a guy and there were two people. We have a rough idea of who we're looking for." Kirisawa said.
"It's common after such a trauma to have some memory loss." Hanai said as he flicked through the pages of a psychology book.
"It happens quite often to people who experienced a traumatic event. It's not unusual for them to have holes in their memory." Hanai continued.
"What should we do to help her fill in those holes?" Kirisawa asked.
"One method is to recreate the traumatic event." Hanai said.
"What would that involve in this case?" Kirisawa asked.
"She would have to experience another similar explosion or she would have to see the perp's faces again."
"Ok I've got a plan." Kirisawa clapped his hands together. "Whoever was behind this bombing doesn't seem to have left a single clue behind, our lead is Stone. She saw the perps with her own two eyes. However, she can't remember their faces. But even so, Stone is our key witness on this case. I want her on the front lines of this investigation."
"Really?" I asked and smiled.
My first proper investigation, if I could get these guys I could put them behind the bars.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Tennoji slammed both of his hands down on the desk and stood up.
"This woman is not going to be of any use to us in the field."
"Hey! Wait a minute!" I shouted and stood up and glared at him.
"What makes you so sure?" Kirisawa asked.
"She saw the bombers' face and then immediately forgot the whole thing. How are we supposed to get anywhere relying on someone with a memory that bad?" Tennoji said.
"Like I said, her 'bad memory' is the closest thing we have to a lead." Kirisawa said.
"But.." Tennoji said.
"You've been working this case for days, have you found even one eye witness?"
Tennoji didn't answer, he looked frustrated and sat back down.
Hanai then spoke up, his voice was calm and collected.
"What precisely will Stone's role be in this investigation?" he asked.
"Is he going to help me collect intel?" Eiki asked.
"No, I want to get Stone as close to the perp as I can. I'm hoping her missing memories will come rushing back when she catches a glimpse of the bomber's face." Kirisawa answered.
"As close to the perp as you can get her? You can't be serious." Tennoji said.
What was his problem? I was as competent as anyone here.
"I want to have her canvassing the area surrounding the scene of the crime, speaking to people in the neighborhood trying to find possible witnesses. In other words, I want her to work with you, Tennoji."
"What!?" I gasped and looked at Tennoji, I was going to have to work with this jerk?
"Tennoji has covered most of the ground so far, Stone has got the highest chance of running into the perps if she works with Tennoji."
"There aint no way!" Tennoji shouted and slammed his hands down on the desk and stood up again.
"This chick is going to slow me down. I don't need her messing up my investigation."
"Hey! Who do you think you are?!" I shouted.
"So you refuse to work with her?" Kirisawa asked, sounding calm.
"Of course. How could I work with this useless woman?" Tennoji said.
"Then you're out of 2nd unit."
"Huh?"
"As long as you are in the unit, you are bound by duty to obey your commanding officer's orders. I am your commanding officer. You are obligated to obey my orders." Kirisawa said.
Tennoji remained silent.
"Partner up with Stone and work the case. This is not a suggestion, it's a direct order."
They both glared at each other but eventually, Tennoji shrugged and gave in.
"Pfft.. what a joke." He grumbled.
"You'd better hurry up and get this through your thick head." Kirisawa warned.
"This sucks."
Tennoji sighed deeply and slouched in his chair.
Looks like I didn't have a choice in this either but at least it would make things challenging. I was determined to prove Tennoji wrong, I was going to catch this bomber and then make Tennoji get down on his knees and apologise.
"Tennoji and Stone as partners, this should be interesting." Hanai laughed.
"So there's a girl in the 2nd unit now." Asano said.
"Anyone care to bet on how long she'll last?" Kyobashi asked.
They all talked amongst themselves as they left the office. Tennoji stayed where he was, looking glum in his chair.
"Whaddya lookin' at? If you got somethin' to say, say it."
I was tempted to bite back but I decided to try and make peace with him.
"I'm looking forward to working with you, I'm sure we can learn a lot from each other." I said and did my best to smile.
He glanced up at me and let out a little sigh.
"Why do I gotta be the one to babysit the amateur?" he asked.
"Amateur? I've got plenty of experience thank you very much!"
"I only got one thing to say. I run my cases my way. Either you follow me or you get left behind. Try to stay outta my way." He said and glared at me.
I matched his glare and folded my arms, I wasn't going to let him intimidate me.
"Time to do some leg work, let's go." He said.
"Fine, let's go." I said.
I followed him out of the office, we walked down the hallway and headed to the elevator.
"Where are we going exactly?" I asked.
"Just follow me and you'll see." He said.
"Whatever." I said.
The elevator seemed to take forever, as we waited Eiki came running down the hallway.
"Yutaka!"
"Yo."
"Here's the list you asked for." Eiki said.
"Thanks, this should keep us busy until nightfall." Tennoji said as he took a piece of paper from Eiki.
We were working until nightfall? Great.
Eiki then leaned in and whispered in my ear.
"Freya, good luck. If anything happens, just shoot me an email."
"Thanks." I said and smiled at him and he ran off.
I then noticed Tennoji was looking at me with a displeased look.
"Problem?" I asked.
"You two sure are friendly." He said bluntly.
"Not really." I said with a shrug.
"Whatever." He said.
The elevator doors opened, Tennoji got on and held the door open for me.
"Let's go." He said.
I got into the elevator and Tennoji pressed the button to take us down.
A few hours later, we were both sat in Tennoji's car.
"Ok, 30 interviews down." Tennoji said.
He was holding a piece of paper in his hand and was ticking people off the list.
I sighed, we had been doing this for hours without a break. Did he ever stop?
"You tired?" he asked as he started the car.
"Huh? Not really." I said.
"This party's just getting started. We're not even halfway done. What'd you think cops did? Stay inside and do paperwork all day? If that's what you're expecting you aint never gonna be able to hack it as my partner. You'd better start writing your letter of resignation or transfer request now!"
He sounded like my old Sergeant Major or my father. Who the hell did he think he was, talking to me like that? As if I'd ever let myself loose to a guy like him.
"I don't know about you, but I don't quit. I will never quite being a detective and I will never quit 2nd unit. And no one gets to tell me what to do, least of all you!" I hissed back.
"Pff. Do what you want." He said uninterested.
*Beep*
"That's the police radio." He said.
"I know, shut up." I said and grabbed the radio. "This is patrol car 105."
"Stone? Is Tennoji there?" Kirisawa asked. "You two need to get back here ASAP."
"What happened?" Tennoji asked.
"I've got bad news. There's been another bombing."
We both gasped and exchanged glances.