Chapter 12: Faces

"Okay, it seems that there's no problem in your body at all..." Isaac said after he review the result of Misuzu's condition, ever since Nao's Monitalien has been 'updated' after the remote incident, she's been smelling something rotten from him whenever she's too close to the boy, this is the reason she was wearing a nose clip on her nose lately in order to block any SPH she came across with, however, this thing has an expiration date and it will come off after three hours of usage, this is the main reason she actually fainted when they're playing on the bowling alley last time, and so, the brown haired woman was currently inside a water tube for examination

"Is that so..." Misuzu said, Isaac nodded at that

"Okay Misuzu, we're done so you can get out of the tube" Isaac told her, she nodded and then suddenly, Dr. Love came in

"I'm also finished with Officer Nada's test" he told the pink doctor, this alarmed Misuzu, and then, she abruptly cover herself in front of the doctor

"What is Dr. Love doing here!? Please look away!" she shouted to them

"Nihihihi...she hates you..." Isaac tease his friend, Dr. Love sigh and then obliged to her demand, turning around

"I'm bored"


"I see, so it only occurred when Officer Nada was somewhat near you, is that correct?" Dr, Love asked her, Misuzu nodded in confirmation, after changing into her Shirobori uniform, she sat on one of the floating chair in the room while Isaac and Dr. Love was interrogating her about her experience on Nao's strange smell

"Yes..."

"So Dr. Love, you really can't tell what's wrong too, huh..." Isaac asked him, he nodded

"That's right, I also asked Officer Nada about it and subjected him into series of test that includes target practices, and I got to admit, his SPH have improved and so is the accuracy, probably because of the update but his smell was still the same before the update though" Dr. Love explained to them

"Hmmm..."

Isaac was thinking on what could be the cause of Misuzu's problem, Dr. love then told his fellow doctor to there's nothing they can do for now and then, he dug on the pocket of his labcoat

"Anyway, until we figure out the cause, you have to wear this for a while..." Dr. Love then handed her a purple crescent shaped pin

"T-This is..."

"It's a crescent-shaped SPH curtain, it will allow you to cut or remove a specific SPH, and if you set in on Officer Nada's, you will erase his smell only" Dr. Love said, Misuzu look at it for some time and then she look at them

"Is there something wrong?" Isaac asked her

"Is there another design of this? To be honest, I really don't like it and it look so childish to me if I wear this on my head" she told them

"Sorry Misuzu, but that's the only design available, so you'll have to bear with it"


Without much of a choice, Misuzu was forced to test the pin on the women's bathroom, putting it on her head while performing poses and adjusting her hairstyle to fit the pin the best, but unfortunately, none of the hairstyle fit her taste and so

"this is really...embarrassing" she muttered after settling on her original hairstyle with the pin on the left side of her head, then suddenly, Veronica enter the bathroom too and she caught glimpse of her pin

"What are you wearing?" she asked her, Misuzu turn to her

"N-Nothing, just a hairpin" Misuzu replied to her, Veronica smirk and proceed to wash her hands

"Hmmm...I didn't know that you were also into fashion" the orange haired woman told her, Misuzu glare at her direction

"J-Just leave me alone" Misuzu grunted

"Well, it's not my business anyway, so I'll leave you alone..." Veronica then dried her hands and then before she went out of the bathroom, she turn to Misuzu one last time

"And before I leave, I must say that our new teammate, Chuuta, was a lot better than I expected, if you know what I'm talking about..." Veronica said as she left her in the bathroom

Misuzu glare at her back before continuing on what she's doing


"O-Okay, then can you describe his face to us?" Nao asked her complainant, right now, he was on CID Office along with the other officers, dealing on some space crimes and unfortunately, he was assigned on their division, it was his first time so he feels a bit awkward on talking to some aliens

"Why would I tell you?! I'd rather talk to that handsome officer over there" an old lady with violet hair shouted to him and then with no other choice, Chips took over for him, there's no way she'll talk to someone who's just shrugging off on what happen to her recently (being groped in elbow, on which Jacquinians consider as a private part of their body, much like earthing's chest)

"Leave the rest to me chu!" Chips said

"O-Okay..."

Nao let out a tired sigh and then he stood up, allowing Chips to take his seat and deal with the customers' complaints, and then, he was greeted by Misuzu, who came out of the bathroom

"Oh, Misuzu-ch-"

She glare at him intensely

"M-Misuzu-san...so how's your nose?" Nao asked, terrified at her glare

"I'm fine, thank you for asking..."

Then she went on Chips' direction and she decided to help the plushy alien on his work on identifying the culprit, until...

"Assistant Inspector Chips, this face..."

Nao heard Misuzu said out loud and then, the orange haired boy went back to their post and look at the finished portrait of the culprit's face

"I've seen this face on the other divisions too" she continued, Nao gasp

"Eh!"

He then decided to inspect the culprit's face, then after seeing it clearly, he went to the other division to go take a look on their own portrait, starting from Division 1 and with that, he confirm that Misuzu was telling the truth, it was the same face of the culprit being portrait on them, but this one has commit a different crime, which was stealing a bag from an alien

"Wait! Don't tell me..."

Nao then went to Division 5 on which Ninotchka was the assigned officer to take care of the customers, and then as he expected, he also saw the same face but this time, he has been told that this man made an attempt of kidnapping an alien child

"NO WAY! It's all the same!" he exclaimed after seeing three identical faces, then after some time, several division exchange information and they too was shocked, it was all the same face no matter how you look at it

"W-What the heck is this?! There's no way that three space crimes were done by the same person in just short amount of time" Veronica questioned

"I already analyzed the portrait and it seems that it matches a face from an orthopedic database section" Ninotchka report to them

"O-Orthopedic database section?" Nao wondered out loud

"It's a database where we kept records of aliens who undergo plastic surgery, this procedure was for the aliens who want to enter Earth without shape-shifting ability" Chips explained to him

"I'll scan the face so where planet...did they...come...from...NO WAY!" Ninotchka yelled the last part after seeing the results

"W-What's wrong?" Veronica asked her

"I found a match, but...this is..."

Then instead of explaining it to them, Ninotchka show them the bizarre result through the holographic monitor she's been using, a result which also shocked them to the core

"WHAT!"

"WHAT IS THIS SHIT!?"

On the hologram, a crowd of people with identical faces can be seen, they have different hairstyles and clothing but their face was 100% the same


"It's been decided that Division 5 will be going after the culprit" Laine announced to the officers

"WHY! You're not playing favorites here, right Chief?" Virgil asked in frustration, but the one who answer his question was Dr. love

"Well, first of all, Officer Sonokata of Division 2 was still recovering and so is Inspector Virgil of Division 1, but on Division 5's case, only Officer Ninotchka was recovering, Officer Kokonose and Assistant Inspector Veronica were on great condition so it was obvious that the two must go" Dr. Love explained to them

"Youyousa!"

After they discuss about it after some time, it was determine that the real culprit was the one who wear a red hoodie (since it was very noticeable on the portraits described by the three victims) but the main problem is...who will be the one that will apprehend him?

At that question, Divisions 1, 2 and 5 argue to each other that they're the ones who must go but unfortunately, no one was backing down among them and so, they asked their chief, who was with Dr. Love and Taro, the three of them were currently on their way to the main headquarters, and after asking him, he finally made his decision that Chuuta and Veronica of Division 5 must go

"Okay then, have a safe trip" Laine said as he turn off the comm. Chuuta and Veronica then went to the transfer station for their transfer


"Wha!- how are you able do that?" Veronica complain after she saw Chuuta didn't landed headfirst, she was completely frustrated at the fact that he can react quickly before hitting his head on the ground, unlike her and the rest who was using the transfer system

"Let's just finish the job, shall we?" Chuuta simply told her, ignoring her complaint at how he was able to land on his feet, she just let out a 'hmph' while crossing her arms and then the two went on the site where there's a smoke

"Is that..." Chuuta said after seeing a crowd gathered around the smoke with some earth police interrogating the people present

"Yup, probably the culprit's doing...let's get going"

then the two was about to take a step but was stopped by a voice of an old man

"Hey, you two..."

Chuuta and Veronica turn to see an old man, he's wearing a brown trench coat over his suit, just like one of those inspectors on movies he was watching recently

"Sorry to bother you two, but there's actually an arson happened here and as the saying implies, the culprit always go back to the scene of crime, so have you seen any suspicious individual around?" he asked

"Um... who are you mister?" Chuuta asked him

"Oh, pardon me, I'm just an inspector that was assigned on this case" he answered

"I see, well unfortunately for you, we didn't see anyone here" Veronica answer him this time

"Is that so? well that's okay, but I must asked, those uniforms you're wearing, you're from Shirobori middle school, right?"

"Yes..." Chuuta nodded

"That was actually far from here, so what are you two doing in a place like this?" The inspector asked them

"Well, that's..."

For the first time Chuuta can't think of any reason without alerting the inspector's senses, he can't think of any suitable alibi until...

"Me and my boyfriend we're on a date..." Veronica spoke and then she got closer to him and hold his hand, Chuuta immediately understood what she intend to do so he play along with her

"That's right..." Chuuta agreed to her holding her hand tighter

"I see, I was so envious of you two" the inspector said until he was called from behind

"Hidaru-san, there's a suspicious woman who was being questioned right now, let's go..." his partner approach him, the inspector named Hidaru nodded

"I see..."

Then he turn to Chuuta and Veronica

"Well, have fun on your date and don't stay up too long or you'll ended up doing erotic activities in some motel" the inspector named Hidaru then left the two alone

Chuuta raise an eyebrow on what the inspector told them but Veronica blush heavily, that old goof, how dare he-

"Ummm...Assistant Inspector Veronica...you can let go of my hand, if you don't mind..."

Veronica turn to him and realized that she was still holding his hand tightly, her blush intensifies as she quickly retract her hand away from him, Chuuta sigh at that, why is she acting strange after that inspector told them that...it wasn't true after all, so there's no reason to get mad at him

"Anyway, you save me back there Assistant Inspector Veronica, thanks" Chuuta told her

"I-It was nothing...that was on the manual anyway so I-It's normal..." Veronica said but what's this feeling she had when she actually hold his hand and never let go for some time

"There he is!"

Chuuta snap her back to reality at those words, Veronica look around until she see their target, the culprit with a red hoodie

"Well, let's get this over with..."


The two were now back at the station along with the culprit, it was an easy catch, Chuuta simply cornered him with his speed and Veronica just introduce herself as an elDLIVE officer while showing her badge to him and then in an unexpected way, the culprit actually surrender to them immediately, they were shocked at what he did but at least he didn't resist at all and cause ruckus around and now, he was on the interrogation room together with Chuuta and Veronica

"I see, so the reason you did all those things was because you lost your identification as an alien and you had a brilliant idea of committing crimes on other aliens to catch our attention, however..." Chuuta started

"...Earth police always come first, I was so desperate at that point and when you two show up, I was so relieved" the culprit told them

"Well, why didn't you contact our hotline instead of doing those things?" Veronica asked

"Well, I also lost the contact number along with my ID, so what choice do I have?"

Chuuta just close his eyes while Veronica sigh, they won't admit it loudly but he does have a point


Chuuta then decided that he should go home since his auntie might get worried about him, Veronica nodded so she let him go and then after he was transferred back to Earth, she went back to the CID room, where she found Ninotchka typing on the computer

"Oh, Veronica, how's the case?" the black haired woman turn around and asked her

"Well, at least it ended well...we manage to catch the culprit without any problem" Veronica answer her

"Where's Chuuta-kun then?" Ninotchka followed up

"Oh, Chuuta already went home, we're done with all the cases today so I dismissed him" she answer

"I...see"

Veronica then notice that Ninotchka was sad at that, probably because she wasn't able to go with them due to her injuries

"What's wrong?" Veronica asked her

"N-No, it's nothing"

Veronica reluctantly nodded as she decided to catch some sleep, leaving Ninotchka alone