Chapter 3: Water in the Well
Ryotaro Dojima ran his hand over his spikey, black hair, groaning loudly. His brow was furrowed, his eyes closed as he bore a frown. He leaned his torso forward, his head tilted horizontally, with one hand cupped into a fist and pressed on his side.
"Tch, all right, welcome to the force," Dojima said, sighing as he held his hand to Torikiri.
"Arigatou!" came Torikiri's response, who clasped Dojima's hand and bowed deeply; smiling widely.
Dojima returned the smile, reaching for a paper in his pocket. He handed it to Torikiri, who read the contents astutely.
"That's how you can join officially," he explained, lending her a pen. Torikiri proceeded to write down her name, gender and other information the paper asked for her to document.
"Huh... it's taking you no time." He turned his head to the side and fixed his eyes at the wall, a little flustered.
"When I was signing' up, I had to consult my ID to finish signing everything off." He shrugged, waving his hand towards him as he turned his body around.
"Kirijo's bought what's left of the Nanjo Group," Dojima said suddenly, jolting Torikiri from her writing.
"They agreed to merge with Kirijo," he clarified, clasping a doorknob and opening the door to his office.
"That's a pretty sound move," Torikiri nodded, looking around Dojima's office as she entered the room.
"SEBEC alone is too important to give it off to someone else." Torikiri tilted her head at the rather basic, almost vacant office, with only a few pictures of captured criminals all around it.
"Not only that," Dojima interjected, taking a seat in front of his desk. "Kirijo's always been a partner to the Nanjo Group." Dojima reached for his coffee mug and poured steaming, dark brown liquid into it.
"Best of both worlds, I'd say." His lips lightly grazed the mug, liquid descending onto his tongue in short bursts. He winced slightly at the heat.
"Our job, now, is to figure out what happened to Nanjo's HQ." Dojima put the mug on his desk, waving his palm over the smoke emanating from the liquid.
"I, uhh... noticed that most of Nanjo-san's graduates from Hermelin were with him at HQ." Torikiri laid her derriere on the chair in front of his desk, placed the pen on the paper and gave the clipboard to him.
Dojima looked over it, analyzing the contents. "Hmmm... you were a teacher at Hermelin?" Dojima raised his brow, planting his elbow on the table and cupping his chin.
Torikiri nodded, grabbing her right wrist and placing it on her thighs. "I recognize who they were, too..." She drifted off, biting her lip as she fixed her gaze on her hands; her eyes appearing sorrowful.
"Chisato Kasai, Yosuke Naito, Yuriko Yamamoto, Kumi Hirose, Yuko Himeno, Kenta Yokouchi, Rose Futaba, Tadashi Satomi and Tsutomu Kurouri." Torikiri's voice grew softer and softer with each name uttered through her gritted teeth.
"Nanjo-san employed them into his business after they graduated." Torikiri took in a deep breath, heaving her shoulders up and down as she exhaled calmly.
"Are they all...?" He was only met with a nod from her. He sighed, shaking his head in disapproval.
Dojima looked to the paperclip, nodding every so often as he read through what she wrote. "All right, you're in."
Torikiri smiled, bowing her head. "Arigatou, Dojima-dono!"
