Chapter 10
It seemed there had been some slight changes in her "escort" personnel. In the past the guards had been rather laconic and uncommunicative with her. Now it seemed they were trying to be more personal as they escorted her down the hall. Or rather, at least one of them was.
"They are fixing your room up right now." the guard to her left said. He was young, probably in his mid-twenties, and seemed to have a rather cheery disposition, full of smiles and good about trying to make eye contact with her as he spoke. "My superior wanted me to let you know they're returning your TV privileges and replacing everything that was broken. So it should be a little more comfortable for you in there now."
"Fantastic." Homura said, dryly. Not really feeling in the mood to return his courtesies. "What are they planning for this next test room?"
"Well, in my position, I'm not given specific details, but I think it is just a physical examination. Just to make sure your health is keeping up. I think they are also planning to put some exercise equipment in your room to help with that as well."
They reached a metal door at the end of the hall, and stopped. The other guard, who was a bit older and was of the more usual silent guard brand, waved to the camera that was stationed above the door. There was the familiar series of beeps and hisses as the door slid open, and revealed an identical hallway.
"Well anyway, I know you are Homura Akemi; my name is-"
"I don't want to know your name." Homura cut him off.
He grinned. "Kotaro Sakazaki." Homura just rolled her eyes in response. "I'm actually going to be your full-time escort from now on, that's why I thought you should know... Can I call you Homura?"
"Akemi is preferable."
"Very well then, Miss Akemi." Kotaro said with a slight bow of his head.
Halfway down the hall, they stopped at another door. "Alright, here we are."
It was not the usual sliding metal door that she was used to seeing. It was just a regular door, which was indeed made of metal, but had a doorknob with a small foggy window above it, and a panel to the left with keys numbered from zero to nine. The silent guard walked to the panel, punched in a couple numbers, and a click could be heard. Kotaro then held the door open for Homura and gestured inside with a gentlemanly demeanor. Homura flung her hair to the side as she walked past him.
Inside was not the kind of test room she was used to: it actually looked more like a hospital room. There was a small padded hospital table with a white sheet over it, a countertop with a sink and two rows of draws, and a shelf that held several pieces of medical equipment which Homura could not identify. On the far wall there was a familiar two-way mirror like everywhere else, other than her own room. She knew that, like the others, there was currently a group of scientists sitting behind it and taking notes on her.
There were two people already in this room, each wearing a matching white lab coat. One was a balding middle-aged man, and the other was a younger female. Homura assumed the man was a doctor, and the girl was his nurse.
Homura eyed the doctor suspiciously. He gave her a professional smile, but behind it Homura could see he was a bit intimidated by her. She wondered, could he be...?
"Homura Akemi, please take a seat." He said, gesturing to the padded hospital table. His voice was not right. It was not Dr. Mono after all... too bad. Homura had a feeling she would never be given the opportunity to meet that specific member of the lab staff face-to-face. Although, she would really like to be given that opportunity, so she could show him exactly what she thought of his accommodations.
"I'd rather stand." Homura said, her eyes glancing around the room suspiciously. The guards followed her in, then took a stationary posture on either side of the door which they locked behind themselves.
The doctor cleared his throat. "We are just doing some basic tests, it's nothing to worry about..." Homura simply stared at him. "We are going to check your pulse, blood pressure, and take a blood sample. We would also like for you to transform so we can take a sample of your clothing." After a few more moments of Homura refusing to respond, the doctor added: "As soon as we are finished you will be free to return to your room. It won't take long once we get started."
Homura glanced back to the two guards stationed by the door, Kotaro gave her a grin. The other guard remained motionless as always. She then walked over to the table and said: "Alright, let's just get this over with." as she sat down.
Sayaka woke up to find Kyoko was already out of bed. She stretched as she sat up, then walked out into the living room where she found Kyoko practicing her enchantment trick on Mami. "You're finally up." Kyoko said. "Sleep in much?"
"Well I can't really help that." Sayaka said, folding her arms. "I couldn't get a wink of sleep with you snoring all night!"
"Huh, really?" Kyoko asked. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I did…" Sayaka replied, letting her head hang low as her eyes darkened. "At least ten times…"
"Heh, sorry bout' that. Anyway, take a seat, I really need two people to practise this properly."
"Uh… sure…" Sayaka said, looking around. "Hey where did Madoka and Leiko go?"
Kyoko grinned, but Mami was the one to answer: "They both went down to the coffee shop together."
"Seriously?" Sayaka asked.
"Yeah," Kyoko said, still grinning, "it was hilarious, at first Leiko was all-" She let her eyebrows sink down into a bored expression to mimic Leiko. "'Is it your mission in life to constantly pester me with these pointless errands?', but Madoka pretty much demanded that she'd come along… It was kind of surprising, Leiko didn't give as much resistance as I would have expected."
"It seems those two are becoming close." Mami said with a smile as she stirred her cup of tea. "They were up pretty late last night talking to each other."
"Heh, that's Madoka." Sayaka laughed. "She really seems to have a way with the dark and brooding type."
"Yeah, guess so." Kyoko said, returning the laughter. "Eh, anyway. Let's get started on this… Tomorrow's the big day, you know?"
"Yeah…" Sayaka glanced at the bandage that was still around Kyoko's neck. She always worried about her when she had to go to the lab. She trusted Kyoko, but she knew how dangerous it was, and was always worried about the possibility of her getting caught. "This will be the last time right? I mean, if the thing with the witch's barrier works out."
Mami nodded. "Yes, that's why we have to make sure Homura understands what the plan is. We can't risk her trying to get rid of the GriefSeed, or simply destroying the witch once it hatches."
They each nodded their agreement, then Kyoko said: "Alright, well here it goes." She picked up a pencil and started writing something out. "I always know what is actually written on the paper." Kyoko explained. "I can either enchant a single person to see something else, or I can enchant the paper itself so that the enchantment will affect anyone who sees it. I think that second option is the best way to go, because when I do it I can make it so the enchantment won't affect Homura."
To Mami, it looked like Kyoko was drawing that simple picture of a cat's face she had drawn before. Sayaka's face went red however, and she put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. Kyoko grinned, and Mami looked back and forth between the two of them. At first she had a confused expression, but then she got the idea of what Kyoko was doing and her eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Okay! What did you write?" Mami interrogated, folding her arms and giving Kyoko a scolding look.
"Hang on, we're not done yet!" Kyoko laughed, and passed the pen over to Sayaka.
"Haha! Um… okay, let me see…" Sayaka started writing something back, the entire time her lips were curled up, trying to hold back laughter. To Mami it looked like Sayaka had drawn a picture of a flower. When she slid the paper back over to Kyoko, Kyoko had a neutral expression, until she finished reading what was actually written there. Then she and Sayaka made eye contact with each other and they both burst into a mutual fit of laughter.
Kyoko picked up the pencil and started writing something back, laughing the entire time she was doing it. Mami's expression grew darker and darker, knowing that she was the butt of some unknown joke between the two of them. Sayaka's second response warranted another fit of laughter between the two, and Mami finally had enough. "Alright! give me that!" she said, snatching the paper up. She held it up and looked at it, but all she could see were some crudely drawn pictures including a cat, a flower, a dog, and a smiley face.
She waved the paper at Kyoko. "You disenchant this right now!" She demanded. Kyoko fell over on her side, and rolled around on the floor, stuck in a fit of laughter.
"Okay, okay! Careful what you wish for!" Kyoko laughed as she snapped her fingers. The page disenchanted, and Mami's face went completely red as she read over what was written about her.
Mami started ripping up the paper as she hollered at the two of them: "I'm so glad to see how serious the two of you are being about this!" She was mainly targeting Kyoko who was rolling around on the floor, but then she turned to Sayaka. "Honestly! I at least expected better from you!"
"I'm sorry!" Sayaka said, practically crying. "I can't help it!"
After a few harsh words from Mami, they eventually got back to a more serious practise session.
"Hey I was thinking." Sayaka said, after they completed another round of successful note passing "Why don't you just enchant Homura to see a message on the paper? I mean, the way we are doing it now, the message is going to be left on the paper after you leave so it's kind of like leaving evidence behind… besides that, wouldn't it be easier than permanently trying to hold an enchantment on the paper?"
"Well, you're right, but there's a couple reasons why I wouldn't want to do it like that. First of all, it's much harder to create actual words through enchantments, especially in Japanese. It requires way too much precision and I'm just not that good at it yet. Plus, doing it this way, Homura is also able to write back to me. She wouldn't be able to do that if I was simply showing her my enchanted messages."
"Oh, okay that makes sense." Sayaka said, and then they heard the front door open.
Madoka was first to enter. In one hand she was holding a drink carrier with four coffees in it, and she waved with the other. "Hello everyone, we're back!" she said with a smile.
The three of them exchanged their greetings, but stopped when they noticed Leiko slink into the room after Madoka. She had a deep red blush on her face and kept her head down as she quickly walked through to the computer room… There was something different about her…
"Hey, what's with your hair?" Kyoko blurted out before Leiko managed to make her escape.
Madoka set the drinks down and quickly went to grab Leiko by the arm and lead her back into the room. "Come on, don't be shy!" Madoka laughed, but that only served to deepen Leiko's embarrassment.
"I've got a lot of work to do." Leiko said dryly, her eyes shifting around the room that she was now being forced to stand in. Her hair had two thick braids which ran past her ears and went down to her shoulders, each had green ribbons tied to the ends. The rest of her long white hair remained straight around the back of her head, and her bangs had been styled over the top of her forehead.
"I convinced her to let me do her hair for her!" Madoka explained. "What do you think? Looks good right?"
"Oh, yeah! Super cute!" Sayaka said, putting a thumb up.
"I didn't have a choice... I was forced into this." Leiko said, forcing a neutral expression, but she could not hide the blush that was creeping onto her cheeks.
"Well, I think it looks great!" Mami said, smiling. Leiko did her best to just hold her neutral expression, and Sayaka and Kyoko leaned in and started whispering and grinning to each other. Mami shot the two of them a scolding look, and they quickly sat upright again.
"I'm getting back to work now…" Leiko said as she turned away. "I've wasted enough time with this foolishness." Once Leiko was fully turned away, Kyoko puffed up her chest and started miming Leiko's words with a comedically serious expression on her face, which earned a fresh burst of laughter from Sayaka, and another scolding look from Mami.
Madoka brought the drinks over to the table and sat down. "I didn't know what you all would want so I just took my best guess." Madoka said with a smile, as she passed the drinks around.
"Thanks, I needed a boost!" Sayaka said, taking the cup and pulling the tab up right away.
Kyoko watched as Leiko retreated into the computer room, and once she was out of sight, Kyoko confronted Madoka: "Sooo, the two of you seem to be getting along pretty well." she said with a grin.
Madoka blushed a little as she fidgeted with the lid of her coffee. "Well sure, we are friends after all. I mean, she doesn't have great social skills, so she comes off a bit rough around the edges, and I don't think she is totally honest with herself as far as her feelings go… but she actually is really nice!"
Sayaka grinned. "Madoka, I almost get the impression that you like her. Homura's going to be really jealous you know."
"Hey! It's not like that." Madoka insisted, trying to keep her voice down. "We're just friends!"
"Oh man! When I decided to take you as my wife I had no idea how much competition I was going to have." Sayaka laughed as she put an arm around Madoka's shoulder and forced her into a headlock.
"C-cut it out!" Madoka said, nearly spilling her coffee as she tried to push Sayaka away.
Kyoko leaned back and palmed her face as she watched the two of them. "Oh geez… you two…"
"Don't tell me you're getting jealous too!" Sayaka teased as she locked Madoka under her arm.
Kyoko just shrugged her shoulders and scratched the side of her nose, blushing lightly. "Nah, I'm a big girl. I know how to share."
After the struggle raged on for a while, and after several close calls of coffee being spilled on Mami's carpet, Mami cleared her throat to grab their attention. Once she had it, her suddenly stern expression returned back to a smile as she said: "I think we should get back to studying. Besides helping Kyoko practise her enchantment spells, it wouldn't be a bad idea to study more psychology terms as well as come up with some related conversation topics."
"Hah, sorry, you're right." Sayaka said, scratching the back of her head.
"Um, is anyone hungry?" Madoka asked. "I can go prepare something in the kitchen."
"Oh, well I could eat!" Kyoko said right away.
"You can always eat…" Sayaka said dryly.
Kyoko was getting ready to throw some retort back at Sayaka, but Leiko suddenly came bursting back into the room. Every head turned in her direction, and they could all see the seriousness on her face: "We've got problems." she said, "BIG problems."
Kaiji watched the baseball game with half a mind. He was too preoccupied thinking about this whole Kyoko Sakura situation. The game was in its second-to-last inning, and so far the two teams were tied at five runs. Makoto was just coming up to bat when Kaiji heard his phone ring. His hand instantly dove into his pocket to retrieve it, and when he saw that it was Ishida calling he flipped it open right away. "Ishida, how's it going?"
"Hey… Kaiji, I just got the files you were asking about." Ishida said.
"Really? Wow, that was fast. Guess you were overplaying how much of a pain in the ass it was going to be after all, huh?" Kaiji laughed. He was trying to sound casual, but actually he was extremely anxious to get a hold of the files himself.
"Yeah… well, like I said, you managed to pique my interest earlier, so I got right on it…" There was something wrong with Ishida's tone of voice. It did not sound like his normal controlled self. He seemed a bit distant like he was in deep thought about something. "Anyway…" he spoke slowly, "I went ahead and skimmed through the paper versions… like I said, you had me really curious… and, well…"
"Did you find something?" Kaiji asked, his own tone became serious and lost its playfulness.
"Yeah, I found something alright, and I have about a hundred questions for you now, but maybe we shouldn't do this over the phone?" He said that last part as more of a question, to find out if it really should not be over the phone after all.
"Hm, maybe not." Kaiji said, trying to keep somewhat of a casual tone to his voice, but his adrenaline was suddenly racing. There is one thing he did want to ask, and he really did not know if he could allow himself to wait. Not speaking over the phone was probably an unnecessary precaution anyway, so he just came right out with it. "Just give one hint… that name I mentioned before, 'Kyoko'. Did it turn up on the paper file?"
When Ishida answered Kaiji almost physically felt his heart sink in his chest and his mind started buzzing with the floodgate of questions it brought on. Ishida said: "Yeah, it was. In fact, the name 'Kyoko Sakura' was all over this damn report, and you want to know what wasn't? Not one goddamn time? Misato Sakura! But Kaiji, how did you…?"
"We should talk about this later." Kaiji said quickly. They may have said too much already but his mind was buzzing and preoccupied with way too many other things at this point.
"Yeah, you're right…" Ishida sighed. "Look, I'm off at four, do you want to meet up somewhere then? I can give you the files and you can see it for yourself too."
"Sure, that sounds good… How about the same place from before?"
Ishida was quiet for a while, then he answered: "Yeah, that's perfect… see you then."
Ishida hung up, and Kaiji was just lost in thought as he listened to the dial tone. What did all of this mean? He was now officially past the point of being able to convince himself it was all just a bunch of coincidences…
First, Dr. Endou makes wild claims about their computer systems being hacked, as well as expressing certain unmentioned doubts about the psychologist, Kay Sakura. Now, every suspicion Dr. Endou brought up to him has been confirmed with the revelation of one simple altered document. Someone wanted to hide the name 'Kyoko Sakura', a name that is very similar to Kay's name, and not only that… Homura actually called her Kyoko! There was no doubting that now… it was not just some random occurrence with no meaning behind it. Homura had called Kay 'Kyoko'! There was a connection, but he just did not know what it was.
Not to mention the voice he heard in the lab which led him to discovering all of this. He thought that was the part that bothered him the most. If it had turned out that the name "Kyoko Sakura" did not mean anything after all, then he could have gone on convincing himself that he just imagined the whole thing. Now, his little delusion had been proven to be true, and he did not know how to take it. He was a rational man without a superstitious bone in his body, but he felt his world-view crumbling down around him. He did not have any time to dwell on that though, right now, his best course of action would be to try and find as many answers as he could, and hopefully start making sense of this mystery.
He watched as his son swung the bat and connected, sending the ball flying far into left field.
After the checkup in the doctor's office, Homura was taken back to her room. The doctor had done some tests she was somewhat used to undergoing from her life before becoming a Magical Girl, back when she was plagued with poor health and had spent much time in hospitals having similar tests done to her. That life was so far gone by now, that she did not even see that person who she used to be as a tangible part of herself anymore.
In the hospital room, they had checked her pulse, asked her to blow into a tube, checked her reflexes - all the normal stuff. Then, they had asked her to transform because they wanted to examine her clothing, as well as the shield that appeared when she transformed. She refused this request, and simply stood up and walked towards the door, stating that she was done for the day. There was some chatter from the guards earpieces, but they eventually let her through and escorted her back to her room.
She still refused to take the bottle of pills, so Kataro walked into her room with her and set it on her table. "That's pointless." she said to him.
He just shrugged and said: "Sorry, just following orders. Guess it's just in case you change your mind."
"Whatever." she said, dryly. "You can leave now."
"Alright then. See you in a couple of days, Miss Akemi." He bowed his head, then walked back to the front door. Once he and his silent companion were outside, it hissed and slammed shut.
Once they were gone, Homura took a good look around her room, looking for anything that had been changed while she was out. The most obvious change was that everything she had broken had been either fixed or replaced. She picked up the TV remote and hit the power button, and the new TV set came right on. She grudgingly had to admit that she was somewhat grateful for that. She then turned it off again and went back to scouring the apartment. Her bedsheets had been changed, the bathroom had been restocked with fresh towels and soap, and she even found a new package of colored pencils in her art drawer.
She went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, seeing that it was fully stocked with fresh food. As she looked over all the new food, her stomach let out an audible growl and she suddenly realized how hungry she was. She had been out of her room for longer than normal this time around, and thus had not eaten since having a small breakfast about six hours ago.
She opted for making herself a sandwich using the lunch meats, and lettuce and tomato she found. When that was done, she opened a bag of potato chips and dumped some onto the plate. She poured herself a glass of ice tea and then took it all back to the living room and sat in front of the TV set with them. She flipped to the news channel, wanting to have some connection to the outside world, and ate her food as she watched.
Nothing too interesting came up on the news. It seemed that the world was just going on normally as it always had while she was stuck in this room underground. She hoped Kyoko would come to her with an actual escape plan on her next appointment tomorrow. Homura was dying to get out of this place and go see Madoka again. She did not have any solid escape plans of her own.
Her only trump cards were the bombs she had stored in her shield space, and that was the reason she would not allow the doctors to examine her shield up close. Once she had used her trump card, it would be gone, so she had to make it count. She had plenty of pipe bombs, but considering these massive steel doors, they really would not do too much good for her. They may have been useful for destroying the two-way mirrors in the test rooms, but she had never tried it before because there was no guarantee for escape, and she had to keep them a secret.
There was one bomb in her arsenal, however, which she knew from experience could blow right through one of those doors, plus a whole lot more. However, if she set it off right here in the apartment, she would just end up blowing herself up right along with the door. Besides that, there was more than one door she had to get through, and she only had the one bomb that was capable of destroying them.
She finished her meal and brought the plate back to the kitchen. She scraped the remnants into the garbage disposal, then brought the plate to the sink. Her best idea for the bomb was to drop it down the garbage disposal. It would be a good way to create a distraction and cause confusion in the lab, but without a way through the doors, all of that would be pointless as well.
She went back to watching TV and continued to ponder her options. After thirty minutes of watching the news and seeing there was nothing important going on in the real world, she started flipping through the channels looking for something more entertaining to watch. She suddenly felt like she wanted to watch something funny, and she felt herself getting drowsy. She let out a loud yawn and muttered: "Sleeeeepy." to herself, slurring the word comedically. Then she paused and started laughing.
Wait… what the hell... why did I say that?… She snapped herself out of the laughter and shook her head back and forth, but she felt a grin creeping up on her face. The idea that she was grinning made her laugh some more, but she quickly put her hand over her mouth to stifle it.
She stood up, and looked around the room, feeling that something was wrong. As her eyes glanced around the room, she focused on the fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling, and suddenly knew for sure that something was indeed wrong with her. The lights were more… colorful… like there was a soft rainbow glow coming off of them, and when she moved her head she felt her vision dragging very slightly.
They did something, she realized, keeping her hand firmly locked over her grinning face. Those bastards! They- but when?
She quickly ran into the bathroom, once again feeling the urge to laugh but doing her best to keep it down. She did not even bother shutting the door, but went right to the toilet and stuck her fingers down her throat and leaned over as she forced herself to gag.
She had never tried to make herself vomit like this before, so she mostly just gagged and spit, but failed to actually retract the meal she had eaten thirty minutes ago.
She focused all her will on making her stomach turn, and stuck her fingers further down her throat until the point it was actually painful. She did not really focus on the pain though, her mind was more on how odd the feeling was, and it gave her that strange urge to laugh that had suddenly started plaguing her.
Finally, after another minute of holding her fingers down her throat and forcing herself to wretch, she vomited. She fell over the bowl, hugging it tightly as she expelled what she could from her stomach, and when she was finished she stood up and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was now a tangled mess and she had saliva all around her mouth which she wiped away onto the back of her sleeves. She looked into her own eyes, and saw her pupils were dilated to small black pin points. There was no doubt about it, she had been drugged. Yet, she came to this conclusion with a curious fascination, not feeling any anger or resentment over the fact.
Although, there was the stronger side of herself that knew it was not right, so she marched out of the bathroom to confront the camera and demand answers. As she stared up at the camera, she did not know what to say. She just felt sleepy, and felt that general sense of amusement about the situation. Her head bobbed back and forth as she stared, and then the intercom buzzed on.
"Homura, is everything alright?" Dr. Mono asked with a passive voice.
"Yoooouuu…" She pointed a wavy finger at the camera, as she swayed back and forth on her feet, "You did something! You drugged my fooood!" Some of her words were coming out slurred, but she tried her best to ignore it.
"No, I assure you your food has not been altered in any way."
Homura bent over and let out a burst of laughter. "You didn't?" she asked, tilting her head to the side with childish curiosity.
"If you are feeling unwell we can send in a medic."
"No!" She smiled and put a thumb up. "I'm good!" Then she quickly turned away and ran back to her bedroom. She dove into her bed and hid her head under the pillow and closed her eyes. Some of the drug had gotten into her system, and whatever it was, it was very potent, but at least she managed to get rid of some of it. All she could do now is hopefully sleep it off. She also knew that she could no longer trust any of their food, so she was going to have to starve herself until she came up with something. Kyoko was coming back tomorrow. If there was an escape plan, she knew it had to happen soon.
Kyoko Sakura… Find her…
What would happen once he did? He wondered. To whom did that voice he heard belong, and what connection did all of this have to Kay and Homura? He figured the only way to get the answers to these questions would be to do what the voice told him to do, and this would be the first step.
He took the folder from Ishida who sat on the park bench right next to him.
"I have a few theories." Ishida said. The sun was turning into a light shade of red as it began its descent towards dusk. Ishida had picked up his younger daughter before meeting Kaiji there, and she and Makoto laughed and chased eachother around the park while their parents sat nearby.
"Go ahead, it probably won't be right. As far as this Kyoko Sakura person goes, I know nothing about her right now, and it's hard to explain why exactly I need to find her."
Ishida nodded as he reached into his front pocket and retrieved a pack of cigarettes. He rubbed his bearded face before lighting it up, then said: "After the preacher died, there were some interviews with his followers." Apparently he had already taken the liberty of reading the file more thoroughly. "None of them could explain exactly why they had started following him in the first place, nor did they care about his teachings after his death. It was almost as if a spell had been lifted, and once he was gone they had all returned to their normal lives. There was never any explanation for what exactly had occurred in Kazamino those months. My best theory is that it was some form of mind control, and obviously the government would have an interest in something like that. Sounds kind of crazy, but that's the best theory I could come up with on my own."
"Believe it or not, my work has nothing to do with the preacher himself… Like I said, I really don't know what the connection is… Either way, it would be way too hard to explain, and I can't talk about it anyway."
"Hm, classified, huh?" Ishida asked, taking a drag of his smoke.
"Yup, afraid so." Kaiji laughed. He wished his brother was not a smoker, especially since he was a sort of role model for his own son. He figured Ishida's job as a detective could be pretty stressful, though. Kaiji had not felt too much stress with his own work until taking on this assignment with Homura. He use to love his work, but his current assignment didn't feel as though it was bringing him much joy. He did feel bad for her, but still managed to convince himself that this was all for the greater good. What would happen if he found Kyoko Sakura? Would it give him a path to improve Homura's situation, or would it put him in position to betray her? The biggest question of all, of course, was how exactly did Kay connect to all of this?
"Say, Ishida," Kaiji started, "have you ever been in a situation where you had to do something you felt was immoral, for the sake of doing your job or for the sake of a greater good?"
Ishida raised an eyebrow as he took another drag of his cigarette. "Sure… with this job, all the time."
"How do you know if you are making the right decision or not?"
"I guess it depends on the situation, but sometimes you don't really know. Sometimes you just have to make a choice and put your faith in it. Then, accept the consequences of your actions, whatever they may be. However, as far as morality is concerned, sometimes there are certain things you should never go against"
"For example?"
"That depends on you." After a few minutes of silence, Ishida stood up and stomped out his cigarette. "Well, it's getting late. The wife is going to kill me if we don't get back soon."
"Heh, same here." Kaiji said, as he also stood up. "Come on Makoto." he called. "Time to go now."
"You too, Yuki, come on."
Makoto and Yuki said goodbyes to each other, then to their respective uncles, and the group dispersed.
Kaiji did not know what he was going to do yet, as there were still too many unanswered questions for him to know much of anything. However, he did know that if this Kyoko Sakura girl was still out there, he needed to find her. It was too late for a trip to Kazamino today, but he now had the address of Kyoko's home, and he thought that would be the best place to start looking for the answers.