Wednesday, Late afternoon, 1

"Really." Kuroko sighed as she cuffed a boy in his teens to a lamppost, and then put her hands on her waist. "Even in broad daylight; has stupidity become contagious?"

While the guy sobbed, she looked at the store in front of them, decorated with an unrecognizable swirl of spray tagging. Kazari's voice was buzzing in the background, the other girl having called Konori-senpai in order to have her type the location into their database.

The cleaning would be done later, and if it was up to Kuroko, there'd be no doubt as to who would be doing that bothersome job.

"I'm sorry!" The guy cried.

They had stumbled upon him by chance during their patrol; this street was filled with closed stores and was usually only frequented by delinquents and other shady characters. Even the security cameras here were out of order, which was probably why he hadn't even bothered covering his face.

"What school do you attend?" Kuroko asked, not really feeling any sympathy for the moron.

"S-Sakugawa high school, first year." He sobbed. This guy is in high school? Kuroko sweat-dropped. "But I only did it because someone I know said I should!" He continued desperately.

"Oh really?" She couldn't care less, but habit had her talking with him; when apprehending someone, you would want any info you could get out of them. Sometimes it was nothing but rubbish, however. "And who told you that?"

"Um, his name is Shotaro. Shotaro… something."

"Ah-ha." She sighed again.

XXX

Anti-Skill had no free officers at the moment to come pick up the guy, so Kazari brought him back to headquarters for questioning while Kuroko continued the patrol. Judgment 177th branch had their own interrogation room, which was really no more than a separate room with a couch, chair and a table. Thanks to that, they didn't have to bring them into the main office if they didn't want to.

Even this guy, who was still acting as upset as if he'd been interrupted during studying for an exam, was questioned in there.

"I told you, this guy I know told me to do it!"

Kazari sweat-dropped. Did he really think he'd be off the hook by blaming his actions on someone else?

"Can you tell me more about this – er, Shotaro?" She asked, checking her notes if that was the correct name. It sounded familiar, somehow. She frowned, trying to recall where she heard it before.

"He's a third-year at my school, that is, Sakugawa high school." The guy said, obviously not trying to wriggle his way out of this by making things up. "Anyway, I just did it cause he said he'd pay me 800 yen for each place I managed to tag… look, I was supposed to take pictures of my spots and –"

Kazari's eyes widened. Shotaro! Shotaro Hajime! He and William Mustaf both were famous throughout Sakugawa for being level four (their school had very few of those) – could it possibly…?

"I didn't even know the spray was so hard to get rid of, I swear –"

"His name is Shotaro Hajime, right?" Kazari eagerly interrupted the blabbering guy.

He stuttered and stopped, and then, maybe sensing a means of redeeming himself, eagerly co-operated. "Yeah, that's his name – Hajime! Shotaro Hajime, the level four at Sakugawa high school!"

"When did you talk to him?"

"I saw him after school yesterday. Usually we – that is, me and my friends – hang out at a place called Hirama, it's a club of sorts in area F. I met him there."

XXX

"Ruuu-i-kooo!" Someone threw themselves at her back; Ruiko let out a surprised squeal and stumbled forward, barely managing to stay upright due to the sudden weight.

"Kasuri!" Inu came up beside them, and pulled Kasuri off Ruiko's back.

"What are you up to?" The bespectacled asked, smiling and patting her friend's shoulder.

Ruiko plastered on a smile as well, rubbing her neck. "Nothing in particular, I was thinking of buying a crepe or something…" She had actually been bored out of her mind, with Kazari being so busy with Judgment work and none of her other friends free to roam about.

"Oh, great idea!"

They all bought crepes from a nearby wagon, and sat on a bench to eat, enjoying the sun from underneath a shady tree and watching the people around them.

"Are you guys coming to the concert on Saturday?" Ruiko asked.

Kasuri gave a deep sigh, and Inu smiled apologetically and said: "It's kind of expensive without those special tickets…"

Ruiko sighed, thinking about Kuroko's words regarding the price. Jeez, rich girls sure are something…

"Can't you just rob a bank or something?" She suggested, grinning. "I'll even throw in a good word for you when Anti-Skill shows up!"

"Inu could seduce the employees while I stuff the money into my schoolbag." Kasuri said thoughtfully. "And Ruiko, you cover our backs! If anyone comes, take them out with the radiation from your cell phone!"

"Then we'll be facing mutants with four arms and superhuman strength instead…"

"Oh shit, you're right…"

Inu giggled.

"Arrg, but it's so frustrating!" Kasuri groaned and slumped back into the bench. "I need to go to that concert, but my allowance isn't in before next week!"

"I know what you mean." Ruiko said. "If not for those tickets, I wouldn't have money to go, either." She leaned back into the bench and took a bite of her crepe. "Man, being rich sure would be nice."

Kasuri suddenly grinned, and leaned into Ruiko, as if to whisper some great secret. "You know, I know about a quick and easy way to earn money."

"Eh?"

"Kasuri, we don't know that for sure." Inu said in a resigned tone.

"Well, we won't know if we don't go!" The other girl protested, straightening up. She looked back at Ruiko. "I overheard some of the boys in class talk about it. Apparently there's this place you can go, and they will give you some really easy work which pays good."

"Really?" Ruiko looked up at the green leaves of the tree above them, and imagined a ton of different kinds of work. "Eh, count me out…"

"No, no, not like that!" Kasuri waved her hands urgently. Then sat back and sighed. "Man, what are you thinking?"

"Well, how do you know it's not something like that?" Inu said.

"The boys wouldn't go there if it was, would they!" Kasuri barked.

The other girl sighed. "You're just curious, admit it."

"So what if I am?" Kasuri looked up at the sky and raised a fist. "Curiosity is the most important force in this world! Without curiosity, Thomas Edison would never have invented the electricity, and Albert Einstein would never have constructed the first rocket!"

"I don't think he did that…" Ruiko started, but her comment was ignored as Kasuri turned on her and said: "You want to be rich, don't you, Ruiko?"

"Erm…" she smiled awkwardly, leaning back to avoid having their faces touch.

"Then you'll come with me and check this out! We'll forever regret it if we don't, I promise!" Ruiko gave a strained laugh, but the fact was she was actually very curious. Maybe they could get some easy part-time jobs to make a few extra yen? It wouldn't hurt. Besides, she had nothing better to do.

"Okay, I'll go." She said, making Kasuri throw her hands in the air, spraying crepe everywhere. "Yay! Come on, let's move."

Inu sighed again. "Isn't it all the way in area F? We'll need to take the bus there."

XXX

Kuroko had just finished helping a little girl finding her way to the plaza when the sound of a girl's whimpering moans erupted in the street, making people in the near proximity blush furiously.

Kuroko pulled out her cell phone and pushed the answer button.

"Hello?"

"Shirai-san!" Kazari's voice screeched into her ear from the other end, making Kuroko grimace.

"Uiharu? What's the matter?"

"I found some really important clues about the taggers!"

"Eh?"

"Apparently Shotaro Hajime of Sakugawa high school has been promising payment to anyone who tags around and brings back proof that they did." Kazari sounded excited.

Kuroko gripped her tiny phone with both hands and her eyes grew big.

"Where is he?" She asked urgently.

"Well, I don't know where he is right now," Kazari admitted, "but the guy we arrested earlier met up with him at a club called Hirama in area F yesterday. I'm going to send the information to Anti-Skill right now –" Kazari stopped talking midsentence when she was suddenly met with the dial tone signal. "Eeeh?"

Kuroko hadn't really meant to be rude by hanging up; it was just a reflex in order to use her phone for looking up the address. No matter if she should be patrolling or that it was Anti-Skill's jurisdiction – she regarded this matter as personal, and would settle it as such.

Half an hour later and with the help of her phone's GPS, Kuroko stood outside a small club with a sparkling neon sign saying "Hirama". The street was well-kept and flanked by small trees, and a small bakery on the other side of the road had some tables and chairs outside on the pavement, adding to the cutesy picture.

It didn't fit her image of a run-down place overflowing with thugs at all.

Hirama was actually pretty normal, double glass doors inviting her in.

The inside was pretty much like any other fast-food restaurant. There was a counter up ahead; they were selling sandwiches and different kinds of fast-food (mostly western), should one judge from the grand menus on the wall above it. The right side of the room was filled with small tables and chairs, clearly not meant to be anything other than a place to sit and eat, which was also what it was used for by the students in there. On the other side of the room was a small area with game machines, and several boys were cheering and laughing by one of the racing booths.

Kuroko went up to the counter and showed her green armband to the woman behind it.

"I am Shirai Kuroko of the Judgment." She introduced herself. "I am here to inquire about one of your recent customers. Is there anywhere we can talk privately?"

She knew several of the female students sitting close by were paying attention, noticing their stares from the corner of her eye.

"Oh my, did something happen?" The woman said worriedly, wiping her hands on her apron and gesturing towards an opening at the side.

"I just have some questions." Kuroko said, and followed the lady into a small room behind the counter.

"Rika, please take the counter for a while." The lady said, and the girl who had been eating a sandwich by the only table in the room, nodded and hurriedly left, with a quick glance at Kuroko on her way out.

The woman closed the door behind her, and sat at the table. Kuroko sat down opposite of her.

"Do you know anything about a man called Shotaro Hajime?" She asked.

"My, my, you're not even going to ask me my name or anything?" The woman laughed warmly, and Kuroko felt her face heat up.

"I guess I could." She said awkwardly, and took out her cell phone, not willing to admit she forgot procedures for a moment. "Then, what is your name and occupation?"

"My name is Miranda Johnson; I am the owner of this place, and work as a kindergarten teacher during daytime." She smiled. "I didn't know they allowed such young girls to work in Judgment; are you sure you shouldn't be chasing after boys instead?"

"Quite sure, thank you." Kuroko said, imagining herself trying to beat up some older boy, losing her cool every time he was spotted and throwing insults about him whenever he was mentioned. What a ridiculous idea. Besides, what would onee-sama think if she suddenly started acting like that?

"Ara, maybe the boys are chasing you instead." The woman smiled smugly at her, and her gaze seemed to drift to her chest area. "Although, you seem to be –"

"That's quite enough, thank you!" Kuroko huffed. "Please, tell me what you know about Shotaro."

"I'm sorry, I don't know anyone by that name." The lady smiled kindly.

"He's suspected for being involved with the recent tagging in district 7. We have sources that say he has been meeting students here and promising them pay for any tagging they can do."

"Here?" The woman gasped. "My, I never… of course, there are a lot of students here every day, so I wouldn't really know…"

Kuroko let out a small sigh and looked at her phone, not really seeing it. Perhaps that high schooler they arrested earlier was lying? Somehow that didn't feel quite right. But it really felt like she was wasting her time questioning this woman, whether she was telling the truth or not.

"I will question some of the students here," she said, collapsing her phone back to its smaller form. "Thank you for your help." Even though you didn't help at all! She felt like screeching.

"Of course, it was my pleasure!" The woman smiled, and followed her out of the small room.

XXX

Kuroko asked the few students inside the club, but none of them even knew a Shotaro, although the guys that grinned at her and each other during the whole conversation, made her want to smash a fist in each of their faces and force the truth out.

After ten minutes of this fruitlessness, all the while feeling like she was being observed (though every time she looked at the counter, the kind woman was never paying her attention), she went outside. Looking up at the sky, she scratched her head. It was already late in the afternoon, and she was getting hungry. She did not really want to go back in and buy food there, so she wandered off down the sidewalk.

Just as she passed the passageway between Hirama and the next building, she heard voices. Low, stressed voices, as if they tried to be as silent as possible even though they were really worked up.

What's that, a secret meeting of some gang?

Curiosity found her, and she went into the small passage.


I decided to split this chapter because it was so long. Rejoice! This means the alluring preview I gave you last chapter doesn't show up until next time... *evil chuckle*

Like? Dislike? Don't get it at all? Spot any grammar mistakes? Leave a comment, or I'll grow conceited thinking my writing is simply perfect!