When I arrived at the scene, I didn't bother with the street cops and immediately searched for Mitsuhiro. With any luck someone had found something already. I found him standing by his white Mazda, talking rather hurriedly into his cell phone. As I looked around the park, dozens of CSI members scurried around, their numbers eclipsing even those of the first crime scene.
The park itself was fairly small, really only a tiny green speck on the face of Tokyo, consisting of a few trees and some open fields for recreation. The smoking crater lay at the south end, only about a hundred yards from the street, but obscured by some bushes and other assorted foliage, making it nearly impossible to see from the sidewalk. Besides, the park is typically deserted this late at night. Any visitors to this neck of the woods at this time of night could only generously be described as "unsavory".
"Urawa! You got here fast."
"Well, the streets are pretty empty tonight, so I saw no problem in breaking some of our speed limits." We walked around the circumference of the crater, surveying the Techs, "So, when did this get called in?"
"Around 3:00 is when we got the first call, and the first cars pulled up around 3:05. No witnesses in the area and no one in custody." No surprise there, it seems like getting evidence in this case was going to be as much fun as pulling teeth. "Still no casing as far as we can tell, and the explosion is roughly the same size as the first case. Plus, there was more of that white powder, though most of it has blown away by now."
"Speaking of which," I lit a cigarette and took a long draw, "did you hear anything else about our mystery powder."
Mitsuhiro lit a cigarette of his own, "Nothing. We know that it's an organic material, it's cells bearing a resemblance to human skin cells, but not by much. Also, we know it's non-toxic. I'm not exactly sure what to do at this point, I've never seen anything like it."
I sighed, "I know what you mean." I took another long draw from my cigarette before I started off in the direction of the line of street cops who had started to canvas the park. "I'm going to check out the rest of the park, I'll catch up with you in a little while." Mitsuhiro simply nodded before returning to his cell phone.
I walked absentmindedly towards the east entrance, casually scanning the well cut grass for anything out of the ordinary. So far, it just looked like any other municipal park. I was already getting sick of this case, and we were only three days in. Three damn days, and not one clue as to what we're dealing with. There was a whole crew of experienced men and women, and none of them could come up with anything. It's a bad sign when Tokyo's finest aren't good enough to do their own damn job. More than anything, I felt like I was failing them all. I was already fed up with the case, and it had barely even started, which is not the mindset a lead detective should be in. I would really have to get on top of this case, or it could just squirm out of my reach for good.
Then something caught my attention: some rustling in the bushes to my right and a few scattered, hushed voices. I crept slowly towards the crop of bushes, wishing I had brought a gun with me. Most cops in Japan don't carry firearms, but right now I felt that the cold weight of a pistol would calm me down. As it was, my heart was racing as I neared the voices, which were starting to become more distinct. "Usagi, how could you leave it here? You're supposed to have it with you at all times!"
"I couldn't help it, Rei!" the second voice hissed. "I must have dropped it when that youma jumped out of the bushes at me!" I could hear a slight quiver building in the voice, which sounded distinctly like a young girl. My heart rate began to slow, but my anxiety was now quickly being replaced with annoyance and curiosity. 'What the hell are these girls doing at a crime scene in the middle of the night?' "It was so scary, you guys!"
"Oh, don't cry you baby! I honestly can't believe you sometimes!"
"Would you all just keep quiet," a third voice interrupted. I had reached the end of my patience; I was done listening in on these kids, and I was going to find out exactly what the hell was going on here. I slid quickly towards their cover and parted the branches with one sweep of my arm. There were five girls, illuminated in the glare of my flashlight, more than I had heard talking, and all seemed to be around 15 or 16 years of age, too young to be out here this late. They all seemed well spooked, but only a blonde, with what must be the ugliest haircut I've ever seen, made a noise.
"This is a police crime scene! What the hell are you girls doing here? Didn't you see the tape, or the cars? Speak up!" None of the girls uttered a word at first, they looked too scared and confused to give me a straight answer anyway, but the tall brunette eventually came forward.
"I'm sorry, sir. My friend lost her compact here earlier, and we just came to help her find it."
A look of complete disbelief washed over my face, which didn't seem to make the girls any more comfortable. "So you're telling me that you girls came out here in the middle of the night, past a dozen police officers, to look for some lost make-up?"
Another girl, the one who had been ridiculing her friend by the sound of her voice, stepped forward quickly, "It's very expensive make-up, sir. Usagi's mother would be very upset if she found out that her daughter had lost it."
"It was a birthday present," a second blonde perked up.
"Okay, hold on a damn minute. Who is Usagi?" The girl with the weird pigtails stepped forward, looking embarrassed and flustered in equal measure. "Usagi, did you really need to get everyone up at three in the morning to look for makeup? I don't care how expensive it is, it could have waited till the morning. But I can't imagine that anyone your age could possibly be that stupid. So, is that really why you're out here? Looking for make-up?"
"Um...yes?" Wow, that was one of the most unconvincing answers anyone has ever fed me, and I've been working this beat for several years. Most of the girls seemed even more nervous at this point, and it looked like the one with the black hair was jabbing Usagi rather forcefully in the ribs.
"Oh!" We all turned towards the blue-haired girl, who had up to this point been totally silent. She bent down into the grass and picked up a small white compact and handed it to her friend, "Here it is, Usagi." She turned towards me and bowed deeply before speaking nervously, "We apologize for troubling you, sir. We didn't mean to interfere." All the girls bowed too, and most seemed fairly genuine. I stroked my goatee thoughtfully, while I pondered what to do. These girls were acting strange, there was no doubt about that, but I couldn't imagine a few teenage girls had anything to do with this mess. Besides, we didn't have any evidence to go on, so even if I felt that there was something these girls were up to, I couldn't do anything about it.
"Okay, I'll let you girls get out of here. But next time, be more careful, and pay attention for God's sake. What if there was a psycho on the loose around here? If you had just waltzed onto the crime scene, I could be scooping your guts into a plastic bag right now." The girls bowed again when I had finished my spiel, and started out towards the east exit. They were almost out of the park when I yelled to them, "And don't be out this late! Next time I see you out at this time, I'll write you up for curfew!" Goddamned kids.
I didn't bother going back to my apartment, even though the first rays of light wouldn't be breaking for several hours still. Too much to think about, and so much still to do. I needed to get started on this new explosion as soon as I could, so that meant sleep was out of the question. Hell, I doubt that I could have gone back to sleep even if I wanted to. Adrenaline was running through me now, and I felt like I could tear the world apart with my bare hands if I wanted to. It's one of those days you live for, when you come to fully understand what you were put on this Earth to do.
I hung around the scene for a little while longer, till I felt that nothing new was going to develop anytime soon. I was better off heading back to HQ and getting some paperwork done while it was still too early to try tracking down possible witnesses. I started to feel the gnawing of hunger at the back of my stomach, so I dropped by a small café and picked up a bagel and one damn big cup of coffee.
Back at the station, I chatted with some of the other early-birds, sharing stories from the job and all the usual macho bonding B.S. Eventually, I meandered my way towards my desk and plopped down in the stiff wooden rolling chair the department had so generously issued us. It felt like I was sitting on a rock, a daily reminder from my government Overlords about how much I hate being in the office.
Well, I could whine all day, or I could get started on a few reports. I opened the top drawer of my desk and rummaged around for some forms. The drawer looked like it had seen it's own explosion, what with all the paper, pens, and notes strewn about in there, with absolutely no thought given to organization. While I rummaged through the desk, my hand grasped the cold steel of my pistol. It was my Standard Issue .38 revolver, a piece of weaponry I hadn't picked up since the day I had finished training. I had put in 60 hours of training time with that pistol, and I had no inclination to pick it up again, but holding that gun again reminded me of my Father. He was an Officer in the military for years, and even though he saw little in the way of real combat, he always gave the impression that he was ready for it.
Dad moved the family around for a couple of years before settling in Osaka, where he worked with civilian engineers in developing new anti-weapon technology, or that's at least what Mom told me after he died. Despite his day ob, Dad was also a gun aficionado, or gun nut, depending on who you spoke to. Even though holding onto his guns was incredibly illegal, especially for a guy who had spent his life obeying orders. He always believed that the only protection you could count on was the kind you made yourself, and I think he always hated the government for enacting the ban.
Now, I was starting to think about earlier in the park, when I first heard that rustling. I swear, my heart turned to lead and plummeted to my feet when I heard that commotion. Maybe, with a case as weird as this, it was a good idea if I took a few extra precautions. You never know when everything can take a sudden turn, and the one time you need your pistol is the day you decided to leave it in your desk. Then of course, if I'm this jumpy, who the hell knows what could happen. What if I had my gun with me tonight? I've never even used it on the street, I don't even want to think what could possible go wrong. There's no apology that'll make up for riddling a couple of teenagers with lead.
After all that, my mind was still focused on the crime scene from earlier this morning, but for entirely different reasons this time. 'What the hell was wrong with those girls?' Everything about them seemed kind of odd, especially the lame excuse about looking for some make-up. Now I know that teenagers can do some stupid shit, but I can't think of anyone who would pull that kind of stunt. What kind of girl wakes up at 3 in the morning, realizes that their compact is missing, and establishes a fucking search party so they can sneak past a police barricade and beat the bushes?
Everything about them was fishy, but I couldn't waste too much time on them earlier. I had more important matters at hand than juvenile delinquents. But how did they manage to sneak by the street cops? There was absolutely NO way that those girls didn't happen to notice the commotion in the park, and I sincerely doubt that they had been hiding in those bushes before the first cars had arrived. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. 'Aw, come on, they're just teenage girls! Do you actually believe that they had anything to do with that explosion?'
"Hey, it's Dirty Harry!" I stopped my quiet introspection and looked up into the boyish face of the head night-cop, Officer Ichiro. We had both joined the squad at the same time, along with Mitsuhiro, and he was basically anointed the midnight secretary for the force. That was fine by him, I guess, since he never complained. I guess hitting the streets just wasn't his style. However, all that time riding a desk made him useful in some of my other cases. The kid was an amazingly quick reader, and I usually found that it was a good idea to leave him with some major case files and simply have him pick out the good stuff for me to go on. It was a great partnership, since it gave his ass something to do, and it kept me clear of the desk during the days.
I dropped the pistol back into my drawer and slid it towards the back, "Yeah right, like I'm going to lug that thing around with me all day. Ichiro, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I should ask you the same thing, Urawa. I rarely see your carcass behind the desk, especially not this early."
"Well, I thought it might be a good change of pace." I took a sip of my coffee and started to wonder why he had come over here again. "So..."
"I'm getting to it, calm down. We've gotten a couple of calls for you yesterday, a new female suitor perhaps?" Ichiro was grinning like and idiot at this point.
"All the late nights must have turned your brain to mush. You know I don't date."
"Hey, I'm just joking with you, big guy. Actually, it's an elderly woman who says you had questioned her about that explosion the other day. You know, the one with that interesting Sailor Senshi theory."
I simply rolled my eyes. I couldn't believe someone else was falling for that crap. "You don't honestly buy that, do you? Five girls with magical powers running around the city? Come on."
Ichiro simply shrugged, "Hey, you never know."
I wasn't ready to buy anything about the Sailor Senshi, however. I moved into Tokyo with Jun about a year before the whole Sailor Moon myth hit, and neither of us bought into the hysteria. I always felt like it was some media ploy, perpetrated by toy companies and manga illustrators in order to sucker all the gullible children of Tokyo into buying a bunch of crap they didn't need. It was all a marketing ploy, and unfortunately for us non-believers, it seems to have worked. Even adults had now bought into the idea of these teenage super heroines. It was all ridiculous, the way I saw it.
I had the whole day in front of me, but I wasn't sure where to start. I decided the best course of action was probably to return to the scene and check out things again, see if there might have been something I had missed. And hey, if there was nothing there, I was at least out of the office and strolling around during a pristine autumn day. The park itself was serene, with only two cops surveying the area, and every tree was awash in golden orange and crimson red. Just being here reminded me of why fall was my favorite season. I strolled around, doing nothing but enjoying the day for a few minutes before I slipped back out of my blissful daydreaming. The park was defined by the four streets bordering it, giving it a rather basic square shape. The park was surrounded on all sides by small shops and an array of different businesses, none of which looked like they were accustomed to late-night work. I guess I could call around, poke my nose into a few of the shops and ask some questions, but I seriously doubted it would get me anywhere.
I sat down on of the cold, green wood benches that lined the main walkway of the park and smoked a cigarette. I had to think, but my brain was stalling on me. What could I do? Where could I go from here? This whole park incident had dried up the rest of my half-cocked theories dealing with the construction agency whose lot had been the scene of the first bomb. I mean, if a rival developer or one of Yamoshita's yakuza thugs was behind it all, why would they bother bombing a park? With a job as professional as this, they had to know that more bombings were just going to attract more heat, and the likelihood that someone got lazy and left evidence behind. Besides, if they were really trying to be a thorn in the side of Mr. Tatsuya, why would they pull this stunt so early on in the construction? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you wanted to bring someone to their knees with a couple of pounds of dynamite, you were going to want to do as much damage as possible.
The big thorn in my side was the fact that Mitsuhiro hadn't called me back today. I was hoping the fresh samples they gathered last night would have yielded some kind of results, but my cell had been dead quiet today. I was going to talk to some of the shop-owners to see if anyone had been working late, but my better bet was to see if any of those aforementioned seedy characters had been hanging around here last night. I called Personnel from my cell and was quickly connected to the desk of Detective Akamatsu, lead vice cop in this district. He sounded gruff over the phone, probably a burley guy in the flesh. "Akamatsu speaking."
"Hello, Akamatsu. This is Detective Urawa. I'm running that mysterious explosion case."
"Oh, sure. What can I do for you?" He lightened up noticeably.
"I'm sure you heard that there was a bombing at Setsuna Park last night, around three o'clock. I was wondering if you knew of anyone who might be "peddling their wares" around that park? Anyone on your radar that would be out here?" If anyone knew the dealers in this area, it'd be the lead vice cop.
"Definitely, that's Yuichi Kamakura territory, one of the south-sides biggest speed dealers. Bastard's been making my life hell for the past four years. He's part of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, real asshole, too."
"Think this guy was out dealing last night?" I hoped my voice didn't sound pleading, but I was feeling pretty anxious at this point. If this Yuichi guy was in on this, could all these explosions possibly be drug related? Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan's biggest Yakuza syndicate, and one of the most violent. Could this all be gang warfare? It didn't seem plausible though, rival gangs were more prone to pavement hijacking or maybe a shoot-out. I hadn't heard of a Yakuza bombing in years, way before I was on the force at least.
"No damn way. We were finally able to pick him up on possession and sale of narcotics charges. Yuichi was taking it easy in a cell downtown last night," he finished with a little bit of bravado. I could almost see him polishing his laurels as we spoke.
I cursed my luck under my breath, but pressed forward. "Any chance that the syndicate put someone on his turf, kind of like a substitute?"
"No way, not this soon. Maybe in a few weeks, but they know we're going to have a few patrols a night going through the park to clean up after us, maybe pick up a few stragglers."
I tried a different angle, "Well, have you heard any rumblings about a turf war? The first bomb site was owned by a developer with ties to the Inagawa-kai, and now I've got an attack on Yamaguchi-gumi turf."
"Our undercover men haven't heard anything, and that's the kind of thing they wouldn't be keeping to themselves."
"OK, well, what about any guys in Inagawa that have a rep for explosives?"
"Explosives? Yeah right," I could hear him chuckling on the other line. "Listen, these guys want you to KNOW who hit you. Bombs are too impersonal. Frankly, it sounds like Aum Shinrikyo stuff."
I shook my head, "Terrorism doesn't seem likely, those types go for high impact. Well, if you could keep your ear to the ground for me, that'd be appreciated."
I thanked the Detective for his time and hung up. I'd have to check the arrests from the last couple of nights, see if some of the syndicate's girls had been picked up at some point in the last week, and hope that one of them had been working near the scene.
The rest of the day had passed uneventfully, unfortunately for my minute attention span. I took my own advice and dropped in on some of the nearby shops, who all told me that they had been closed earlier in the evening, and no employee of theirs would have been at work that late. The rest of the time I spent trying to get a hold of Mitsuhiro, with absolutely no luck. With nothing left to go one, I called it an early day and dropped by a small bar about a block from my apartment. A beer had sounded great the whole day, mainly because I was desperately staving off boredom, and some kind of intoxicant was bound to be more interesting than shuffling around a dead park and some boring Arts and Crafts stores.
I slid into a booth by the window and ordered a tall glass of Asahi Super Dry. I took a long sip and savored the feeling of cold beer sliding down the back of my throat. I lit a new cigarette and took a quick drag before settling back comfortably. The night was cool, but not cold enough to require a jacket. The street lights lit up with the same golden orange as the trees, and every street seemed engulfed in a sweet melancholy. Slow gusts of wind made leaves dance down the sidewalks, and couple held each other tight to keep each other warm in the cool air. It was a sweet scene, I thought to myself as I took a long sip from my glass, the kind of display that royally blows when you're all alone. But I had my beer, and my cigarette, and my thoughts, so I guess things could be worse.
I was busy staring out the window, barely even paying attention to the people passing by. The beer had instilled a peace in me, deep enough to stop my minds ceaseless chatter for little while. It was getting late, and I was on my fifth beer when something caught my attention down the block, on the opposite side of the street. It was a girl, a schoolgirl to be exact, running down the street. She had on the typical blue dress and white blouse combo that most Juuban students wore, but her hair was done up in the most bizarre pigtails I had ever seen. 'Hey, I know those pigtails from somewhere!' Even in my current state of increasing inebriation, I couldn't forget hair that ghastly. It was that girl, Usagi, from the damn park last night! I checked my watch, which read 11:30, and thought about getting up from the booth to follow her. I told her if I caught her out past curfew again, I was going to write her up for it.
However, the beer had settled itself comfortably in my stomach, and the premise of chasing a sixteen year old girl around didn't sound like too much fun. 'Eh, I'll let it slide again, no big deal really. I had only considered stopping her cause it might liven up my night, anyway.' I settled back into the booth and watched her run up the streets towards me; she was talking into her makeup compact, by the looks of it. I took another deep swig of my beer, 'She is one weird girl. What the hell is she doing?' Before she got all the way up to the bar, the schoolgirl cut a quick right down an alleyway.
With her gone, I polished off the rest of my glass and signaled for another. Seeing that girl with the freakishly weird pigtails made me flashback to the whole scene with those girls last night. Everything about them seemed odd, but I wasn't quite sure what the hell it was. It ran deeper than their ridiculous motive, or their sneaking around in the bushes, or even their generally skittish behavior. It was like I knew the girls, like I had seen them before, but I just couldn't remember where. Almost like Deja…vu.
I was halfway through with the new glass when the radio that was resting on my hip blared to attention. I jumped a little bit and spilled a drop of my beer on my crotch, making me look like some kind of louse. I unhooked the radio from my wristband and turned down the volume, which had been turned all the way up.
One of dispatch's finest was blurting out an APB at a hell of a pace, "Attention all units, disturbance reported at 7-6-3 Minato, Azabu-Juuban, across from the Metro Book Station. Please report." I snapped out of my daze with a jolt and slapped some bills down on the bar before I ran out of the bar at full tilt. 'Shit, that bookstore is only a few blocks from here!' Even though I was off duty, I figured reporting for this would even things up between me and the taxpayers for all my dicking around this afternoon.
I raced north two blocks, but the playground at 7-6-3 was completely barren. I grimaced, then snatched my radio off my belt again, and spit, "No one at the scene, dispatch. Any help?" I took a breather and scanned the block for any sign of a fight, and was just about to make another call to dispatch when I heard a loud explosion coming from a block over. I raced off into the direction of the blast, brushing past men and women who had stopped in their tracks, some shocked, some curious.
The blast had come from an alleyway, between a local arcade and a mom and pop bakery, and it seemed like everyone occupying a business on that block had come to gawk in slack-jawed stupification at the scene. Odds are whoever was behind this had managed to slink off in the crowd, and I couldn't help lighting a cigarette when I noticed that all too familiar white powder drifting off down the city streets. This time there was no crater, no real sign of an explosion period, but that goddamned powder was proof enough for me that my case had just taken a turn for the better. I slowly exhaled the smoke and enjoyed the flavor, rolling the cigarette in my fingers while I grinned like a maniac. With this many people, someone had to see something that could finally bust this whole damn thing wide open.
The cavalry arrived quickly and started rounding up people for questioning while I chatted things up with one of the older cops. Seems a concerned businessman called it in on his way home from work after hearing a commotion in the park. While he was unable to give a description, he did say it seemed to involve quite a few people, and by the commotion described, this was no study club. If I could find that guy, I'd give him a damn hug right now. "So, Urawa…" The cop paused mid-sentence and sniffed me suspiciously, "…have you been drinking?"
I tensed up, having completely forgotten about my rendezvous with the bottle earlier that evening. 'Shit, I must look like hell, and I probably reek.' I tried my best to straighten my hair and smooth out my suit while I played off my current state of inebriation, "Oh, just a few beers after work, you know how that goes. No big deal though, I'm perfectly fine." I was about to continue when something caught the corner of my eye, 'It's those Pigtails! What the hell is she doing here!'
My mind began to race through the possibilities at full speed, and I was forced to use every ounce of my will to keep my jaw from slipping out of it's socket and dropping to the floor like a cartoon character. 'You've got to be kidding me, we're on the other side of town! What the hell are the odds she'd be at two crime scenes in one day, at opposite ends of the city?' Not very bloody likely, was my conclusion.
I started to walk in the girl's direction, before turning on my heels and calling to the cop, "Hey, I'm going to walk south, bring a car and follow me. If my hunch is right, we should be taking in five suspects. Got that?" The cop nodded dumbly before taking off in the opposite direction, looking for his squad car. I started back after the girl, making my way through the crowd of onlookers, which was growing by the minute. I swiveled around for a second in the middle of the crowd, scared that I had lost sight of her, but noticed her walking briskly through the outskirts of the crowd. I broke through as fast as I could and tailed her, making sure I didn't do anything to catch her attention. If my gut instinct was right, she was going to rendezvous with her little friends, which was my ticket to round them all up and find out what they know.
Usagi continued down a half block before she ducked into an alleyway between an appliance repair store and a small café. I walked up to the display at the appliance shop and motioned for the cop, who had finally caught up to me, to park alongside. I was only a few feet from the corner, but I could hear their muffled conversation, which was pure fucking gold.
"You guys, that was really scary back there. What was that thing?" It sounded like Usagi, and you could tell by the tone of her voice that she had just been given the shock of her life. But considering this girl dragged all of her friends out to a crime scene in the middle of the night, the biggest shock of her life might be breaking her nail or hearing about the birds and the bees.
"It's energy signature is radically different from any adversary we've faced so far. It seemed to possess paranormal abilities far beyond that of most youma, suggesting perhaps a new sub-species or advanced conception methods." There's a long pause. "It's not a normal youma, in other words."
"You can say that again, I didn't even hear it sneaking up on me until it attacked. Luckily I was able to get the call out."
"You see, Usagi. If you had been with Minako like we had planned, instead of running off to see Mamoru, she wouldn't have been in so much danger!"
At this point the conversation became rather muddled, with two of the girls arguing, the smarter girl and an unknown, older person having a discussion about their next course of action, and the other two trying to end the argument between the first two. The elder cut in to the girl's argument loudly, "Usagi! Rei! This is neither the time, nor the place, if you two hadn't noticed. Let's get back to the shrine, and quickly!"
'Alright, now it's my turn.' "Going somewhere, ladies?" My confidence was short-lived though. Oh, the girls from the crime scene were there alright, still clad in their school uniforms, but the sixth, elder suspect was nowhere to be seen. There had been six voices, alright, but there was definitely a shortage of bodies in the alleyway. Right now, there was only the five girls and a stray black cat, and unless cats have started talking, I've got quite the conundrum on my hands.
The girl's made a satisfactory "EEP" when I barged in on them, but clammed up immediately and focused on trying to compose themselves. I decided to seize the advantage and throw some questions at the group while they were still on edge, and simply pray that one of them would slip up.
"What a coincidence, running into you girls again, and so soon! Do you make a point of showing up at every crime scene, or am I just lucky?"
The other blonde, I think they called her Minako, managed to find her voice, "I'm sorry, sir, but what crime scene?" She followed that up with a thoroughly convincing display of ditziness.
"Are you an actress, miss, because you almost got me with that one. Too bad I saw your friend Usagi leaving the scene just a few blocks back, so you can drop the farce." I caught the dark-haired girl shoot Usagi a venomous look, which almost made me smirk, before I continued, "Listen girls, you can come clean with me right now, and drop the dumb routine, or I can take you young ladies down to my precinct and we can discuss this there. If you're willing to work with me, I won't get your parents involved with this either."
The mention of their parents caused Usagi to well up with tears, and the rest to shuffle nervously and stare at their feet, with the exception of the tall brunette Matoko and the blonde Minako, for some reason. "By the way," I started, scratching my head, "where's your other friend? I heard six voices coming from this alley..." The black cat that had parked itself at the girls feet gave a loud "Meow", which almost sounded like a question, or as close as it could get. I let out an audible sigh, 'Great, that cat's the only one saying anything here.' They knew something, that much was obvious, and they were doing a piss-poor job hiding it from me. Unfortunately, it looked like this little conversation was going to have to continue downtown, because I wasn't getting anything from these girls out here on the street.
And that's chapter 2. I should have another chapter out within the next 2 weeks or so, but feel free to contact me at if you have any questions or complaints. I have some plans for Urawa after this story is done, but I'm not going to mess up canon with him. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see more or less of.
