CHAPTER 1: Unexpected Encounter
"Natsumi!" Toukairin Shouji cried as he jerked up from his sleep. His heart was beating so fast that he could hardly breathe. He looked around and found out that he was in his room, in the Himalayas. "A nightmare again?" He asked himself. Yes, it was a nightmare, a nightmare that managed to make a brave and strong man like him shivered with fear.
Toukairin sighed deeply, burying his head into his palms. He tried to bring himself to sleep but the nightmare just kept dawning upon him. He had been having the same nightmare for weeks. An image of Tsujimoto Natsumi lying lifeless on the cold ground made him shiver. 'Was it just a nightmare? Or was it the truth? No! It can't be true!' His mind assured himself that nothing had happen but his other side told him that there was a possibility. A possibility of his nightmare might be a sign of something not quite good or even worse.
He made a decision. He couldn't let his nightmare and his fear hunt him anymore. He wanted to make sure by himself that everything was right. He decided to take a leave and go back to Bokuto. Something was happening...
As soon as he reached Narita Airport, he delayed no more but quickly took a taxi to go straight to Bokuto Police District. He needed no rest although he didn't sleep all night. Soon, he was standing in front of the PD. Before going in, he sneaked a look at the garage for a while. There was no sign of Natsumi's bike. Only Miyuki's Honda Today was there. "Maybe they come to work together today..." he thought and made his way into the building.
Quiet... It was so quiet. He can't remember the PD had once been this quiet when he was assigned there. Usually, Bokuto PD was always cheerful with laughter and voices all day long but that day... No sound could be heard at all. 'Weird. How can this station be so quiet?'
He greeted the people along the hallway but they seemed to be ignoring him. They all looked pale and their smiles were insincere at all. He took no notice and continued walking towards a department, the traffic department. While standing in front of the office door, he could feel something not quite right was happening and it was going to get even worse once he opens the door. However, he shrugged those thoughts off his mind and opened the door. "G - Good morning..." He greeted sheepishly as he always did before.
All the officers stood up and gasped in shock, including Kachou. "Lieutenant Toukairin? When did you arrive here?" Nikaido Yoriko asked in disbelief. "Just now. So, how's here while I'm gone?" No one answered his question. He scanned all around the room and found something was missing. "Where's Natsumi?" The officers kept quiet. This made him feel uneasy. "What's the matter? Why are you not answering? Did something happen to her? C'mon! Speak people!"
Still, no one dared to answer him. It was until Kachou went over and talked to him. "Toukairin, calm down. I can explain, follow me." Kachou simply walked out of the room with Toukairin following him. They headed to the conference room, where they can talk in private.
The officers sighed in great relief as they left. Kobayakawa Miyuki sank onto her chair as tears began to well up in her eyes. "I never expect that he would come back at time like this. Will he blame us?" Yoriko came up to her and tried to comfort her. "Calm down, Miyuki-chan. It's not your fault. It's not our fault either. Let's just hope he will understand this..."
"Impossible! This can't be true! This could not have happened!" Shouji spoke in disbelief, half yelling, and half speaking. "It's true and it had happened." Kachou tried to comfort him. "But how... Who..." "Calm, Toukairin. Two months ago, it was her day off. We received a call from the HQ telling us that there was a serious case going on and that we need someone strong enough. They mentioned Tsujimoto so we got no choice but to ring her up. Kobayakawa phoned her and she agreed to come here as soon as possible. We all waited for her but she didn't arrive."
"Nikaido and the others tried to call her by her cell phone but no one answered. We then asked Kobayakawa to check her up at their apartment but all she could see was lot of blood on the floor at the front door. There was no sign of Tsujimoto. And this..." He handed a blue cap to Toukairin." This is the only thing left there."
Toukairin stared at the blue cap, well knitted with the name 'Natsumi' on it. "As soon as Kobayakawa informed us about it, the whole department started searching for her but all was in vain. And so we rang the HQ, telling them about her loss and that we can't send Natsumi to help them. But..."
"But what?"
"We… We all soon realised that it was just a trick." "A trick?" Toukairin asked. "Yes, a very cruel trick and the most terrifying truth ever. The call we received that evening was not from the HQ and the serious case mentioned had never existed. It was just a call to make her gets out of her apartment. Someone had planned to kill her and when we realised it, it was already too late..."
There was a long silence as Kachou finished explaining. Toukairin just stared at Natsumi's navy blue cap. Only after a few minutes did he break the silence. "You said it happened two months ago. So why didn't you call me nor write me? Why didn't any of you inform me about this?"
"It's not that we don't want you to know but... It's just we don't know how to say to you and that you might..."
"I might what? Blame all of you? Huh, I never thought of blaming you all at first but now I'm really blaming you and ALL OF YOU! Don't you ever think that hiding this case from me would make me feel guiltier? Guilty for leaving her here with those who don't really care if her loss might make another guy buried in pain!" Toukairin could not take it anymore that he poured all his frustration and depression in front of Kachou.
Then he finally calmed down a bit and said in a low voice." I thought you were my friend and somebody I could trust..." Without saying a thing, he then stormed out of the room, heading out of the station. "Toukairin, where are you going?" Kachou followed him from behind.
"I'm going to find her... Whatever it may take, I don't even care anymore. I swear to bring her back here!"
Miyuki stared through the office window without any expression on her face. Natsumi's loss makes her feel very, very guilty for she was the one who rang Natsumi up. She wished it never had happened but it had happened. Though all of her friends tried to assure her it wasn't her fault, she was still blaming herself.
The office door opened and Kachou walked in with such a pained look. "Kachou," Miyuki stood up. "What did Lieutenant Toukairin say?"
Kachou shrugged. "He blew up and went out. He wants to search for Tsujimoto by himself."
Riding on his bike, Toukairin searched for Tsujimoto Natsumi everywhere he could be. This continued for two months but he never gave up searching. He swore to bring her back alive and bring everything back to normal again. For those two months, he didn't speak a word to the other officers. 'Natsumi, where are you?' His mind asked but of course no one answered. Tired of searching, he parked his bike near a big tree and went to the small river nearby. Not too far from where he was standing, pre-school children were having a camp. Toukairin did not care about it. He seemed to have lost his feelings. He walked and walked until he reached the riverbank and sat down on a hard rock by it, not realising he accidentally dropped something.
Toukairin looked at the water, lost in his own thought. His mind kept spinning all around until...
"Excuse me," he suddenly heard a voice of a girl. "I bet this might be your wallet." Toukairin turned around to see if it was his wallet but he was surprised instead. His eyes widened upon seeing the girl who was holding his wallet.
"Mister, is it yours?" The girl asked again, waving her hand in front of his eyes. "Ah... Oh... Yes, thank you. "He took his wallet while still looking at the girl. Green eyes, short hazelnut hair... She's so much like... "Nat... Natsumi?" He asked.
"Huh?" The girl looked startled. Toukairin was about to ask another question when a group of school kids shouted. "Naomi-sensei! Hurry up! The bus is here!" "I'm coming!" The girl answered and flashed a smile at Toukairin. "You're..." "I'm a pre-school teacher, Tsukihara Naomi."
"Oh... And I'm Toukairin Shouji, a police officer."
"Nice to meet you, Mister Toukairin. You'd better keep an eye on your wallet or it might get lost again. I'd better get going. Well, see ya! "She ran back to the children. Toukairin watched until the bus was out of his sight. Still, the image of the girl he just met kept dawning upon him.
"Tsukihara Naomi?"
