"Come over to the lab once you settle with things on your end, I'll help you carry your things over,"
Utsumi snorted to herself as she entered her apartment. Trust Yukawa to insist on things like that. She sighed as she looked around the room. As expected, after a year being empty... rooms had accumulated a lot of dust. The air was a bit musty, too. Well, at least that was the only few things she had to worry about. Before she left, she emptied out her small fridge of any foodstuff that remained, so she wouldn't have to worry about throwing all the rotten food away later. Nothing has really changed.
Nothing has really changed here, besides the fact she officially has a boyfriend now. Wonder if that fact would actually change anything in her life, she pondered, before deciding that there wasn't anything else that she could do at the apartment...
She ended up meeting the landlady to arrange for a cleaner to clean the place up. Utsumi left, to check on her red Pajero.
xxx
Utsumi smiled, as she got into the driver's seat. She hasn't been on the wheel ever since she left to Oklahoma; so being able to drive her old car around felt refreshing. The car only needed a bit of tune-up and a change of oil and it was good to go. It's a bit troublesome to have to depend on others or public transport to travel, she'd rather be driving on her own. The familiar sceneries all around her cheered her a lot. It finally feels like she's home.
I missed Tokyo so much!
xxx
"Good afternoon! Good to see you again..."
Utsumi smiled as she walked into the building of Kaizuka PD station. It was nice... seeing again old faces and them actually being delighted to see her again. Interesting, considering some of them used to not like her much; especially whenever she ended up cracking the cases that they couldn't solve. Those officers tend to have a lot of pride—and seeing them welcoming her so happily now felt so surreal.
It was indeed quite different.
"Utsumi-san!" she thought she heard, as sounds of footsteps started to come towards her...
She turned around to see Kishitani running up to greet her happily.
"You looked quite cheerful today, Kishitani-san!" Utsumi commented as the younger girl kept grinning ear-to-ear.
"Yes! We managed to get our suspect indicted today, I'm so happy! Things going so smooth today, and Yukawa-sensei's not causing too much problem—"
Utsumi frowned. "Yukawa?', she asked suddenly as Kishitani hastily covered her mouth. Could it be... that yesterday Kishitani had indeed come to see Yukawa to consult on a case?
Kishitani laughed nervously. "It's not really much... but we only managed to capture the suspect recently. Yukawa-sensei's statement helped to get the suspect to confess... so the case is closed. Thank you! The professor's so cooperative this morning!" the girl exclaimed before skipping off towards the other corridor.
Utsumi cocked her head to one side. "Thank... me? What for?"
Few more officers started coming out from one of the nearby investigation rooms as she stepped aside to allow them to pass. Chief Mamiya walked out and called for her the moment he saw her.
"Ah, Utsumi-kun. Just in time... come over here for a minute," ushered the old man as Utsumi quickly ran over towards him.
xxx
"You wouldn't mind this arrangement, would you? You'll still be getting that promotion, don't worry—just that you would be staying at this branch..."
Utsumi nodded her head at the chief, cautiously... despite feeling that something was off. Now that she thought of it, ever since her arrival to the station earlier... everyone had been acting especially nice to her. Even the ones that she knew had used to dislike her openly before.
As if, they didn't want to give her any reason that could make her want to leave Kaizuka...
"After all—" Chief Mamiya continued, "—you're very skilled at solving those mysterious cases, right? Not only you could solve those seemingly impossible cases, but you could also take charge over the usual domestic criminal cases here. Not to mention your skills should have improved even more after a year in Oklahoma—"
Utsumi laughed uncomfortably. "What're you talking about, Chief? Those cases in Oklahoma—well, most of it wasn't really that interesting, and there was a few of those serial cases and mistaken identity cases; I mean, there were people there actually believed things like aliens and ufos and vengeful ghosts! When half of them were actually just drunk drivers crashing onto a barn or cattle running wild or some other things." She shrugged. "I'm not really that great... and weren't Ohtagawa and Kishitani already assigned to handle those kinds of cases? I didn't want to impose on them or anything..."
"No... it's not really a problem, honestly! In fact, both of them would be assigned as your subordinates. How about it? To be frank, if Kusanagi was still around, he would have got that position you're getting right now." The chief made a motion to appear a bit disappointed to her, "Alas, as you've already known... the main office had a firm grip on him right now. You wouldn't want to go to the main office... would you?"
Finally, we see the heart of the conspiracy! The true motivation!
Utsumi nodded sagely.
"I understand, Chief. I'll do my best to live up to your expectations. I'll excuse myself for now..." she started to say before moving to leave.
"Oh wait, Utsumi!"
Utsumi felt herself becoming tensed before turning around, smiling politely. "Yes?"
Chief Mamiya gathered his folders from the desk before glancing back at her. "You still had a few more days on your paid leave, right? You should just enjoy the rest of your vacation without worry for now. You don't have to rush to work so soon... also, send my regards to Professor Yukawa for me, can you?"
Utsumi stared at the old man blankly before nodding, "Y-yes... thank you, sir..." she said before excusing herself.
It was not until the moment she reached her car that everything started to dawn on her. On why everyone was especially nice to her today, on why Kishitani thanked her suddenly... or how the Chief tried so hard to sell her on that particular position that she ended up accepting...
"Aaaah—!" Utsumi cried out before accidently pressing her car horn aloud.
"...send my regards to Professor Yukawa for me..."
Utsumi felt a cold dread running up her neck. Despite the fact she hasn't turned the car air-con too high, "Did EVERYONE found out that I'm officially dating Yukawa now? Dammit!"
A/N: In a way, sorta taking a leaf from the novels. Since in the novel, Kusanagi still worked at Kaizuka. And considering for the drama, most of the plot in earlier novels that was original for Kusanagi being relegated to Utsumi in drama as well and Utsumi's parts being transferred to Misa... I decided to putting Utsumi in a similar position as Kusanagi in novel. It'll be too predictable anyway if Utsumi ended up being transfered to main office anyway.
