It was the morning after, and not long after we got into the office Cleveland entered with another brown parcel under her arm, placing it on top of Hornet's desk, the two of us approached her desk on either side and stared at the package that was on the desk. Hornet looked up. "Haven't you got anything else to do?" she asked rather suggestively.
"Oh! Umm…" Cleveland went unsure as to what to do.
"Don't worry, we'll solve this case by today!" my boss promised the frightened cruiser. Cleveland hesitantly gave a nod and slowly walked out of the room; it wasn't until she did so that Hornet asked. "So, what do you see rookies?" We both glanced at the packaging.
"I don't see anything unusual, the packaging is made of brown wrapping paper with a string tied around it to keep it in place, just like any department store." Myoukou said.
"One from the Eagle union, more specifically the nearby east coast." I added. Myoukou looked at me stunned.
"How did you figure that out senpai?" she asked.
"Well…" Hornet started, before she looked at me and then said, "Oh, okay, carry on." I picked up the package with both my hands and handed it to Myoukou.
"Smell that." I said. Myoukou obediently did so. "That's the smell of a torpedo tempura on the package, which mean that this package was driven over to the depot, and then shipped over to our base, thus, it originated from the east coast of the Eagle Union."
"But how?"
"If this package was sent from London, Paris or even the west coast of the Eagle union, it would have to be flown with other supplies like gunpowder or tinned stew to be distributed to any number of bases in the Eagle Union. But because it smells of torpedo tempura, it was instead driven over to the supply depot on the east coast, driven to the docks with the rest of our supplies and then shipped over here, because we are the only ones that eat these things, and the lack of other smells that would indicate that it wasn't brought in with other equipment for regular troops." Myoukou stared at me with awe struck eyes.
"That's amazing senpai!" she yelled.
"Well, I can do one better than that rookie." My boss said, "This package was ordered from and sent to Shiranui's shop." We both looked at Hornet with a look of confusion. "If you check the sides of the package there." She explained pointing to the side of the package. Myoukou turned the package so that the side that Hornet was pointing to was facing the ceiling. "You'll be able to see today's date written there in Shiranui's handwriting, something that she does so that she can double check that all packages that she received have been received." I rubbed my eyes, trust me to miss something so small, I would have gone to Akashi asking for dresses and not get anywhere.
"Well, it looks like that we'll have to pop over and visit Shiranui's shop then." Me and Myoukou turned and went to leave the room.
"Aren't you coming with us Hornet senpai?" I turned back to face the room as I opened the door, to see that Hornet was still sitting in her desk.
"Oh, you two go on ahead without me, I've got a few things to think about." I gave a nod to Myoukou and left Hornet to her own devices.
"Hello, how can I help you today?" Shiranui asked rather dully.
"We need to take a look at your logbook Shiranui." I said. I was fully aware that Shiranui would not be willing to show us her logbook, but I had something that could potentially be used as leverage against her.
"Is that so, well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that is something that you cannot do."
"Really?" I said, "Because, I've heard that you've been painting the purple tech boxes gold and selling them as such."
"Wait! She's what?" My partner yelled. I ignored her exasperations and continued.
"Now there wouldn't be any truth behind that now, would there?"
"Absolutely none whatsoever." The ghostly shopkeeper replied with no hesitantly whatsoever. "Those are just bad rumours going around by disgruntled customers who have ordered objects that are not as the advertisement described. That is their folly for not reading the small print."
"And you let them order it anyway?" Myoukou angrily responded.
"I'm just the person who orders the products, I'm not the one who gives them false information about said product."
"Well, there is still a case to be made against you for not informing your customers of those products shortcomings." I countered.
"Unfortunately, there is not. I've read through the law very thoroughly and I am as much a victim as the people that order it are, as I am the one who organizes the delivery of these lower quality products, with no responsibility for the quality of said product." Trust Shiranui to know the insides and out of consumer law, the bunny ghost girl continued. "As for your first charge, I may have ordered some gold and purple tech boxes, but I have none left in stock, so there is no validation to your claims." She walked away from the front of her stall, but she hadn't finished yet. "And finally, you would need a warrant signed by Queen Elizabeth herself to prove your claims, as you don't have the power to issue them, and they are not going to waste their time on petty rumours." I angrily gritted my teeth, she wasn't going to budge, well it was time for plan B.
"Come on Myoukou, we've done all that we can here."
"What! Were just going to let her free?" An exasperated Myoukou replied.
"By the way, would you care for a good horror film? It's the original Friday the 14th." Of course she'd try and sell us something.
"After all you've said, no thank you." I replied as we walked away from the Plaza.
"What do we do now senpai? We won't know who it was that ordered those dresses unless we look at her logbook."
"Stop calling me that." I groaned. I fiddled in my pockets for a scrap piece of paper and a pen, I quickly wrote down a number and passed it to my partner. "Go over to the nearest telephone box and ring this number."
"What happens after I ring that number?"
"Don't worry, you'll figure something out." I replied before heading off towards the trees to my right. Leaving a rather confused Myoukou.
I doubled back around to the side of Shiranui's shop, taking care not to walk into her line of sight, I then placed my back to the wall and shuffled along the wall before checking the coast was clear and stooping below the front of the shop. Right on cue the telephone in Shiranui's shop rang, I could here an audible humph from the proprietor and then a slow shuffle towards the back of the store, this was my chance! I quickly crouch walked towards the side entrance before quickly sneaking into her shop, avoiding the rather obvious book that was no doubt had an alarm rigged to it, I instead searched her bookshelf and spotted a rather unusual book within the spines, a 'cookbook'. I quickly pulled the book out and skimmed the pages of the logbook until I found the information that I needed. I heard an audible clack of the phone being put down on the receiver, I quickly placed the book back on the bookshelf and vaulted over the shop counter and crouched underneath the front of the shop and held my breath. I was sure that Shiranui would be able to hear my heavy breathing, or if I attempted to run away from the scene, I could hear calm footsteps walk towards the front of the store, and then the sound of her hands leaning on the counter, she stayed there for a few seconds, that felt like hours with my exhausted lungs, no doubt looking left and right to see if anyone was fleeing her shop, I then heard her walk a few steps back, no doubt to lull me into a false sense of security that she had disappeared, I think she stayed there for a minute, by now my lungs were dying for air, until she eventually walked back to the back of the shop. Reluctantly I slowly let out a breath and took short shallow breaths until I could feel my lungs return to normal, my legs on the other hand were now stiff with cramp and lactic acid build up, I slowly leaned over until my stomach was on the ground and then crawled my way back around the side of the building and back into the trees.
I had managed to crawl my way over to the seafront, rather dirty and very exhausted, where as luck would have it, my partner was waiting. I was barely over the stone border that separated the small woodland from the path by the seafront when I was assaulted by questions from my partner. "Indianapolis! Where have you been? Why did you make me phone Shiranui?" I was too exhausted to explain and just facepalmed onto the ground. "Did you do something illegal Senpai? If you did, I won't forgive you for what you made me do! What did you do sen-"
"Give…ha…ha…ha…give me a second…ha…ha…ha…I can't stand up at the moment…ha…ha…ha…" Myoukou paused for a moment before kneeling down and wrapping her arm around my shoulder, and then dragging me over to a nearby bench, where she laid me down so that I could catch my breath. After a while, when my breathing slowed down, she continued with the interrogation.
"You took a peek at Shiranui's logbook, didn't you?"
"…ha…ha…yeah…"
"Shame on you senpai! We're not above the law you know!"
"…yeah, but I found…something interesting in that logbook…"
"Like what?"
"Like that Shiranui only…only put in an order… an order for seven dresses…over the last few days…"
"Yeah, but Cleveland already said that."
"When did she say that…?"
"Yesterd-" Myoukou suddenly realised that what I had already found out.
"That's right…one of the dresses…was sent by one of our fleet…from the outside…my guess is…the first one…"
"So what do we do now senpai?"
"Stop…calling me that…ha…now what we have to do…is go to records…to see who was not on this base…on the day that Cleveland got her…first dress…"
"Alright Senpai! Let's go!" And with that Myoukou started walking off towards the records building.
"HEY! Wait for me to recover the use of my legs first!" I yelled breathlessly, trying my best to pull myself into an upright position.