It was not even midday of the first day without Yamato Ishida, and the city was already in mourning. Jun had only seen the bare bones of the story she had given to the two largest news outlets in Tokyo on the news, likely due to the Editor of the Tokyo Times and the Director of Fuji TV wanting to co-operate with the police in regard to their son's murder, but it seemed like every tenth person she saw was wearing a Teenage Wolves shirt in honour of the late star. As she rode the train back out of Odaiba, one of the mourners managed to score a seat next to her and for an instant she thought about talking to him about it all, but thought better of it. The headphone cords trailing out of the hood and into the phone he seemed to be transfixed with in his lap told her that he wanted to be alone with his grief.
She had considered going to talk to her own parents whilst she had been in Odaiba, just to see how they were going. Their son's death had hit them hard, not only because they now had to live with the fact that Daisuke had gone to his grave thinking that they hated him, but because the police could neither release the body nor provide any answers, since their investigation was still ongoing. However, from the way the Detective Inspector in charge of Yamato's murder had interviewed her last night, and the chat she had had with the balding head of Tokyo Police afterwards explaining how and why they were looking at merging her brother's case with that of Yamato's and another, she knew that the cops were not going to be able to provide her, or her parents with any real closure.
She had rejected their assertion that the murders of Daisuke and Koushiro Izumi, which had apparently been connected previously, were committed simply to draw Yamato back to Tokyo. Intuition told her that someone that deranged would have either waited for Yamato to be back in the country, or done it before he left. But that did not mean that they were not connected – the revelation of that Koushiro kid's murder had cemented that as fact in her mind – it just meant that there was something else going on, and exactly what that was, was what she intended to find out.
The first stop on the trail had been the Ichijouji's apartment in Tamachi, but Daisuke's special friend was elsewhere. She was surprised to learn that that particular elsewhere was with his heavily pregnant girlfriend, but she tried not to judge. Ken had always been a bit confused about his identity according to her brother.
So she had turned up at their apartment in Odaiba, all set to ask Ken for answers as to what was going on, only to find that he was at work and would be all day due to a function at the teahouse. He could not even get the day off to take his girlfriend to her check-up with the pregnancy specialist, or so Jun was told as she was ushered into Miyako's apartment.
The television news was already on and Miyako dove straight into asking Jun how she was handling this death so soon after her brother's, considering how obsessed she had been in high school. Jun had had to explain that the craziness had still been there three years ago and so she relayed the story of how one night she had been in such a state that she had dyed her hair to look more like the girl he was going out with – you know, because he did not want her even though she was so much prettier than that Sora girl, and guys only care about looks, so it had to be the hair, right? – but when she went to straighten it, the cheap dye melted and burned under the hot iron, forcing her to cover it all up with a jet black dye.
"I had it like that for a few weeks until it grew out long enough for me to cut it all off," she had said, before finally answering the question posed, "I think that's what gets me about Yamato's death, it's not that he's gone that makes me sad, it's the fact that it reminds me of what I'm going to miss without Daisuke around. Without him, I'd have been a crumpling mess of emotion right now, but he showed me that I could be better, and I am, even without him around to check up on me,"
Somehow it had been easy to open up to Miyako. Despite being friends with her older sister Momoe and seeing Miyako around Daisuke and his friends, the extent of Jun's interaction with her had been largely peripheral until today. But since Miyako was a relative of the ultra-sensitive Momoe, Jun knew that she would understand or at least empathise with what she was saying. When Jun admitted that she was seeking out Daisuke's friends for some sort of insight into what might have gotten him killed, Miyako had seemed hesitant, but had scribbled down an address in the heart of Toshima and told her that the people in that apartment would be able to give her a clearer picture.
When Jun had gotten up to leave Miyako had pulled her into a heartfelt embrace and told her to ask for Jou when she got to the apartment, and asked that after she had heard them out, regardless of whether she believed them or not, if Jun could go to the police and report Hikari Yagami as missing.
"I'd do it myself," Miyako had said with a pained expression on her face, "only Ken and I are staying out of it and we don't want any trouble,"
"Why would you get in trouble?" Jun had asked before Miyako had pointed towards the television screen and answered.
"Because the people who told me she's missing, the people I'm sending you to go and see now, they were there when he died,"
The train jolted a little and snapped Jun back to the present. She looked around and noticed that the guy next to her in the Teenage Wolves shirt was still looking at his phone. Only now there was a familiar image on the screen, an image that Jun herself had captured less than twenty-four hours ago.
She leaned in to get a closer look and glimpsed the caption.
Running from the Truth: Rock Idol's Brother and Lover Flee Scene of Crime without Reporting Murder.
"Psycho douchebags," the guy swore under his breath, "probably fucking each other right now,"
Jun recoiled and shifted further away from him. Even though she was getting off at the next stop she could not bear to remain any closer.
Once she was as far as it was practically possible to be from him, though, she entertained the thought he had spouted for just a few seconds and imagined turning up on Jou's doorstep, barging in on Sora and Takeru in the act and letting the hate scream out of her. Every twisted jealous thought she had ever had about that girl being channelled and released – oh, the relief she would feel!
But Jun knew it would not happen, it was all there in the photo. The woman was frightened, pulling the man in the sustained state of shock towards his car. There was no hint of joy or sexual tension, only panic and loss. And besides which, yelling and screaming would not get her any answers.
As the train stopped and she squeezed past the troubled fan and the sardines between her and the doors she wondered for the thousandth time what they had seen that had everyone so scared. And then, for the first time, she wondered what scared people would do if they had just had their faces plastered across the airwaves and the internet in connection with a high-profile murder case.
When she finally managed to exit the train, she broke into a run.
By the time she arrived at Jou Kidou's apartment block, out of breath and silently cursing the fact that at twenty-six she could no longer just run somewhere if she needed to without feeling sweaty and awful, she already knew that she was too late. There were two cars parked haphazardly over the curb that could only belong to police officers, but more importantly there were no Prius's like the one she had seen Takeru and Sora get into yesterday. The cops were likely inside the building, and hopefully they were still searching fruitlessly for their 'persons of interest', and would be for some time.
Jun took a moment to catch her breath leaning against the neighbouring building so as to be far enough away not to attract any attention, but still within eyesight of the door should she be proven wrong about the location of her brother's friends or the cops who might recognise her.
It was then that a third car appeared and parked neatly in front of her, just slightly closer to Jou's building than she was. This one was clearly marked 'Police' and sure enough, the grizzled Detective Inspector who had spoken to her last night who had also taken over her brother's case, the Izumi murder and the one on everyone's minds this morning; stepped out.
As he told his passengers to stay put, Jun casually lit up a cigarette to limit her chances of detection. She took a long drag, knowing full well that it was not just age and lack of an exercise routine that had caused her to lose her breath so quickly.
Issuing a short command into his radio, the Detective Inspector walked over and secured the entrance to the building, completely unaware of her presence. Soon enough, he was joined by three men and a woman, all in plain clothes, who all held themselves at attention in his presence. She could not hear them from so far away, but saw them shake their heads in failure.
"They got away," came a disgruntled voice from inside the car, startling Jun slightly. She looked up but she already knew who it was in the back of the vehicle. She had just spoken to her last night after all.
"I knew I should have been the one to make the call," replied an equally testy, yet deeper and slightly less familiar voice from the same space, "it's you he's had the falling out with, not me,"
"Oh, and what would you have said, Hiroaki? You don't know him like I do. I was the one who raised him, remember?" replied Natsuko Takaishi, frustrated.
"That's not fair, that was a mutual–"
"Besides, it was your station who released those photos in the middle of the sting,"
"That was the cops' fault for ordering it to go out, and you know it, you're just pissed they went to my station and not your paper,"
"Here we go again. We're doing this here? Now?"
"No, you're right, now's not the time, we should have the argument tomorrow morning when your paper comes out, when neither of us care anymore and your talentless fraud of a son is safe in hiding and whatever he knows about my son's death is no longer relevant to catching the bastard,"
"Urgh! I've lost a son too, jackass, don't be getting all 'yours and mine' on me, that's not fair,"
"Hypocrite!"
"Insensitive pig!"
They continued to trade insults as the Detective Inspector returned to his vehicle, but Jun was not there to hear. She had snuffed out her butt with a sharp stomp of her boot and walked away, having watched helplessly as the two unmarked vehicles had pulled away from the curb in search of the answers she so desperately needed, leaving no clue as to where she should look and no way for her to follow.
Her whole day had been wasted.
