A/N: All right, now let's try and get into the actual story. I think I will be updating this chapter eventually.
Disclaimer: Didn't make a cent off of this.
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Ahoy!
Officer Takayoshi Kuno threw back his head and yawned for the second time in one morning. Not a good sign, he thought as he set his hat down on his desk. As a bone in his neck finally popped, he felt every one of his fifty-six years of life. Maybe he wasn't doing too bad for an fat, bald guy but he'd had better days. And that exchange student glutton and his sister weren't helping matters, eating him and his wife out of house and home every damn day. He shrugged his trench coat off and hung it on the back of his chair so he could focus back on the matter in front of him.
There were two cases on deck. The more prominent one was the disappearance of an Indian scientist working at the PANDORA research facility. The woman, Meena Khandar-Swami, and by association her research materials, had been missing for close to a week. Normally PANDORA, being funded by the UN, would be wary of enlisting the help of the Japanese Police. However as time wore on, they became more accepting of any and all assistance. As there appeared to be several Contractors involved, Foreign Affairs Section 4 of the Tokyo Police had been dispatched.
The second and more recent case was the activity of several Contractor stars in the Tokyo Bay area. The National Astronomical Observatory had confirmed it last night. Despite what some thought, it wasn't a crime for a Contractor to be active.
The fact that the activity was happening in a hotbed of transport, human and otherwise, raised a few eyebrows however.
And the fact that one of the Contractors involved was known for sinking ships was out and out bone-chilling.
"Alright, Hazuki's not back from PANDORA yet so run the facts about last night by me again, Akaike."
"Yes sir." The younger man was clad in a light gray suit with a green tie. In fact, he looked the picture of a salaryman, if one were to exclude his dark red hair. "According to the Observatory, at 0137 hours, Contractor Messier Code AR-394 began showing minor activity. At 0142, Contractors DC-295 and CO-147 began showing major activity." He paused briefly to observe his superior's reaction.
Kuno motioned at him. "Go on."
"This continued until 0151 hours when AR-394 and CO-147 stopped showing activity and DC-295 dropped to minor. DC-295 stopped its movement at 0154."
"Anything else we know right now?"
"AR-394 keeps showing minor activity, off and on. Unfortunately, we haven't pinpointed a location like before."
"And after that?" Akaike shook his head. The older officer sighed. "Alright. Get in contact with the port of Tokyo, find out which of the ships came in last night and when. Tell the Observatory to keep a look out. Then, call the Mariners' Association and Maritime Self-Defense, see if any new 'treasures' have washed up on the shores."
Akaike bowed and went to his orders. Kuno took a deep breath and closed his eyes. DC-295 was in Japan, he thought, thinking back to what he'd been told about one of the world's most dangerous Contractors. The Sea King, he was sometimes called. Sea King, Sea Dragon, Sea Monster, you just needed to preface an epithet with the word 'Sea' for any authority on Contractors to know of whom you spoke. The police officer grabbed the bridge of his pug nose and sighed again.
"Hazuki, you'd damn well better have something from PANDORA."
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On the other side of Tokyo, a pair of siblings were getting off a bus. The young woman had long dark hair worn in a ponytail and wore glasses. Underneath her navy maxi dress, she wore a white tank top. A dark blue choker encircled her neck, a shiny, silver bracelet on her left hand and a brown rolling suitcase dragged behind her. Her younger brother was dark-blond with a medium height and build. He wore a dark red short-sleeved shirt with an anchor on it, a second bracelet on his right hand, a pair of frayed blue jeans and carried a large gray duffel bag over one shoulder.
As they neared their destination, a motel-like apartment building, it became clearer that they were arguing. About what, well...
"See, if you'd listen to me, we'd be getting off at the right bus stop, not two blocks away," the brother growled.
His sister growled back. "And if I did, we'd probably still be on the bus because you'd be sound asleep." She turned her head to notice their landlady coming out of the apartment building with her daughter and smiled. "Hello, Miss Bertha."
The large white-haired woman smiled back. Miss Bertha was originally an opera singer from Europe. After giving birth to her daughter, her husband Itzhak inherited the building through a relative. Between performing in Vienna and raising Angela, she'd had a time of adjusting to motherhood. Luckily though, the three of them ultimately pulled through. "Hey, Ms. and Mr... Ichinose. Yeah, that's your names. Enjoy your trip?" she said, gesturing to their bags with one arm, the other supporting the child wriggling in her grasp.
The sister grimaced as she looked down. "Well, yes, I did, up until some genius decided to throw someone's empty luggage in the ship's pool."
"Hey, that idiot shouldn't have wrote a check his mouth couldn't cash. I said I would and I did." Ignoring his sister's inevitable rebuttal, the brother turned back to the landlady. "Say, Miss Bertha, what time is it?"
She looked at her watch. "Quarter past ten, why?" In response, the sister's face dropped as she sped past her brother, the landlady and her child up the flight of stairs to their apartment, Room 39D. The brother turned to the dumbfounded woman as the door slammed shut.
"Sis hates being late for a job, no matter what."
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While one person was wondering where his subordinate was and another was trying her best not to be a bad one, in the center of Tokyo, a dark-skinned woman was sitting in a library as the morning news silently paraded the early day's horrors across a wall-mounted television. Aside from the missing scientist, another young woman hadn't returned home last night. She kept her head down as she read the captions, keeping people from noticing the reddish smudges on her forehead. Through her mind, only one thing echoed: It's started. Please don't mess this up for us.
She turned to her companion-no, her guard. "I have the books I need from here. I'm ready to leave. Take me back to my sweet Daisuke."
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