Gabu had always found himself around competent people, if not learning from them, teaching them but now he was feeling like a leader who didn't have anything to teach to their subordinates and that was something that scared him since the times were dangerous and he didn't want to lose anyone. A few days ago when he was requested to bring kagemori team so they could discuss about the young girl training but she was indisposed so it had only been aneko and hatsumoto the ones there, tho tachiki was not happy with it, looking at the younger officers. "Care to explain what happened to Kagemori? I did not receive an explanation for her lack of presence."
There had already been 3 incidents since she had joined the force and he was sure she was good for the team but if she continued like this it was not going to be pretty nor for her nor for the wolf, he felt like a teacher or a father at this point. Aneko tried to avoid the eyes from both him and Gabu, instead of hatsumoto who was just nervous and this meant he didn't know a thing but she did and yet she refused to say a word. "I don't need to explain how the first days on the force are really important, not only for bonding with partners but also to prove that the new members can be relied on. As you know I accepted her on behalf of my friendship with Ogami but if you can't give me a reason for what happened then I'll have to take measures."
"Sir to be honest, she is very young and her friend and previous partner had collapsed recently, she is under much stress so she had to rest for the rest of the day. We only escorted her to her house and then we came here." Gabu was feeling worried about Michiru but someone hitting the desk stopped his thoughts, noticing it was no one else but his superior who was staring at the young officers angry. "Yes I understand that but you must not forget that we have rules, procedures and this will only lead others to not use them. You could contact central to notify us but you went and did it anyway."
It was uncommon for him to raise his voice to others and even more seen him so angry about anything, but here he was, and even his beast form was showing now. The three of them stayed still as rock, now the two younglings were afraid of losing their jobs and they were about to speak to try and defend themselves but it was in fact the lieutenant who spook.
"Sir with all respect, I understand that what they did was wrong, however officer Kagemori it's indeed younger than them and doesn't have proper training. It's almost as if she was a civilian and they just acted in response to that, i do not approve of it but I can understand, i will personally manage this and make sure it does not happen again." There was silence, before a small chuckle could be heard on the old dog. "Very well Gabu, you want to take this in your hands? Be my guess, but don't start making favors for others. You can leave now."
As they were dismissed, Tachiki was once more alone in his office with his thoughts, he was worried about the officers fulfilling the procedures but at the same time was worried about the former human girl and more importantly about how a certain wolf would react if something happened to her. The mayor was in silence too since what happened to Ogami but it wasn't as if he had anything new to inform, Flip had been getting some info but nothing relevant till now and the police couldn't find anything either so it seemed as if those who attacked before already had what they needed but far from calming him down this brought more thoughts to his head. If they already had everything they needed, what was it for? Why did they only took parts and why all of this happened at the same time Ogami was not at his full potential?
That was something else, after his collapse not only did he stop going to the station, but he returned to work all alone and only informing if he found something or captured someone. He wasn't even sure if he had been sleeping the past 5 days and since not even Michiru had reached them it meant that it was serious.
Back at the co-op, Michiru was under her blankets, trying to hide from the world like when she became a beastman for the first time, the panic she felt when Shirou fainted and the following nightmares didn't help to the fact he hadn't been showing there at the house. "Shirou...where are you…"
She was pulled out of her own thoughts when the phone rang, it was aneko, she picked her phone worried of hearing bad news. "H-hello?..."
"Michiru, sorry for the hour, but I was asked to inform you about something…..tho, how are you feeling today?" Her voice was calm and that helped the young girl to calm down, no, nothing happened to shirou.
"I….i think I'm better, thanks for asking and I'm sorry if you had problems because of me…" On the other side of the line she heard a little chuckle
"Nah, don't worry, just make sure to be all patch up from now on and if something bothers you, we are a team remember that. Anyway, the papers you filled for the police are not enough since you were formally a human, so you need to tramit a legal switch of species and for that you'll need some papers like birth certificate and vaccine etc. You get the idea." A chilling feeling went down her back, she knew already where this was leading.
"You have them?" There was a pause.
"No...but i can ask my mom first thing tomorrow if she can send them….i'll….tell you if anything happens….tell chief tachiki i'm sorry and that i'll be back when i fix that."
"Sure I'll tell him, try to sleep a bit now. You still need to grow up." She then hung up on the phone, her mother….she was really close to her and even when she hadn't reached them since she escaped, they kept posting pictures of cakes on social media for her to see. Michiru missed them, even if the hornet had become her new family it wasn't the same and she was afraid that they would yell or hate her for not coming back even with the cure now.
"Shirou...I wish you were here to tell me what to do." Slowly she put the phone in front of her face, a contact info was on the screen and she could read "mom" on it, her finger refused to click but she end up doing so, while waiting for her mother to pick up her nerves made her squirm each time she heard the tone and just when she was ready to hung up, someone answered. "Hello? Who is this?"
She felt her heart sink, it was the same voice that used to calm her when she became a beastman for the first time, the voice that woke her up, her mom, yet she didn't know what to say. "He-hey...mom..it's me…"
Silence on the line, it felt like hours for her and she was afraid now that it might yell or guiltrip for never contacting them before. "...Is it really you?...My baby, is it really you Michiru?" It sounded as if the woman on the other line was about to cry her soul out, she now wondered if her lack of reply was because the attempt to not cry right there and so was she fighting her tears back.
"Y-yes, it's me...mom." The tanuki then began to cry as a smile appeared on her face, she didn't realise how much she needed to hear the voice of her mom till now. "It's me mom...I've missed you so much, I'm sorry I'm so sorry for not calling you before."
"It's okay honey, it's fine, you're calling us now, we knew you were okay thanks to the tv so we waited…Did you saw the cakes?" She smirked while cleaning her tears*
"Yes mom i saw them, they all looked great, i'm just sorry i couldn't taste them or reply i...was afraid to be honest." Afraid of them being mad, afraid that they wouldn't answer the phone and this fear was still there but for now it was under control. "Hey mom? I...know it's not how it should be but i...kinda need to ask for a favour"
"Huh? What is it hun? This is too suddenly" She took a deep breath, she knew it was kinda disrespectful but she would have had more time later.
"You see i...begin working as a police officer at...anima city and well i need some papers to….really finish my tramits and...well you have those papers." With hesitation she finished the sentence, waiting for the reply which didn't come as fast as she would like. "That's the only reason you call me Michiru?..." She didn't mean it this way but recently her thoughts were a mess.
"No! Of course not but it's just i...was afraid of calling you and...that you guys would be mad at me or worse…" Her whole body was trembling as she couldn't lie to her mom, but what she heard was a slight laugh with a bit of crying from the older woman.
"Oh honey, i can't lie to you, yes we were a bit mad….but we were even more concerned because our baby was out there, alone and scared, you didn't knew what happened to you and we failed to comfort you. The note said you thought it was the best and that you would come back so we waited." She took a deep breath, like if she expected the girl to say anything but continue shortly after. "Then we saw you on the tv, we saw nazuna and we knew you were fine so we kept waiting...it's such a relief to hear your voice...but what you ask me for means…."
Slowly, almost as if it was mist, Michiru morphed to her human form, knowing what was coming but she, somehow, felt ready for that part.
"Why don't you come home?...You will come back...right?" Or at least she thought she was ready, she got up on her feet and look around on her room, then the window, then to a mirror in front of her and she could notice the slight scar on her shoulder and when she did, for a split moment she could see a gloved hand over it. "Mom to be honest i...wanted to come back as soon as possible but as I tried to get a cure for this I met people….friends…." She smirked a bit. "Good friends...I began to help people and felt like i...was meant to come here, as if it wasn't an accident what happened to me you know?"
Then her huge smile banished but it wasn't replaced by a sad face, it was a more small but shy smile, holding her chest. "Also i...kinda meet someone….his name is Shirou….i dunno if there is something but I enjoy having him close and thinking about leaving and never seeing him again. It hurts me. I won't stay in the dark again but, maybe I won't return just yet…"
There was a deep sigh on the phone and then a chuckle, she couldn't tell but her mom was feeling a bit old, hearing her saying this prove that her little girl had grown up and was becoming a women, for the way she spoke of Shirou it sounded like it was love. "I guess that it's fine, Michiru, as long as we can talk like this from time to time so you can tell me about your new life there, okay?"
The calm of her mom even after being told how they felt brought her some calm, she didn't know how stressed she was about talking to her, but there was still her dad to talk about. "Thanks mom...I'll make sure to keep in touch this time...I promise...ma-maybe you could come if it's possible."
"That sounds like something your dad wouldn't enjoy but we will see, I would like to meet your boyfriend."
Suddenly her tanuki was back, tho by the way her fur was all fluffy from the embarrassment she could have passed like a panda, unfortunately before she could deny or say anything to defend herself, her mom had already hung the phone. "Great! Now my mom thinks Shirou is my boyfriend, ugh that's so embarrassing!" She covered her face with her pillow to calm herself, but now at least she knew that her bond with her blood family was still there, this made her smile and gave her the boost of energy to get ready for her day, changing her clothes.
"Mmm, maybe I should try something a bit different today? I won't be jumping around anyway." Then she picked some blue jeans, a white t-shirt and an open shirt with the same tone as the sky, looking at the mirror while nodding her head. "Yes this will do, time to go." With that, she jumped through the window, summoning her wings she thought to herself. ´this is gonna be a great day´
Shirou didn't knew what else to do on the ports, whoever did this knew very well how and where to replace the scent just like it happened before with yaba at silvasta building but that was made out of fear, this on the other hand felt more professional, intended to distract him with the scents left behind but he would need to go around all the city. So he went back to the old school, looking for clues or left overs of the chemicals and since the body parts needed to be kept on sterile enclosure to be moved this lead to heavy machinery to move the boxes around but surprising enough, the equipment provide by the ports was not used for this which means they needed to get it from somewhere else and this put a path in front of him, going around to find where they went brought him to where the bodies were disposed and with ti, the scent of blood. Usually a normal beastman wouldn't feel it or if they did, I would be almost nothing but thanks to his abnormal nose he could even imagine the scenario and this made him turn around while covering his nose with a hand and his chest with the other, feeling like the air was thinner.
"Ogami, is that you?" The voice took his mind away from the blood as he turned his head, just to find Gabu staring at him. "Lieutenant? What are you doing here?"
"Ah, I knew I recognized that coat. It's really easy to find you thanks to it, you know?" He smiled walking closer to the wolf who grunted at the comment but was grateful to the man for distracting his head. Once he was close to the corner of his eye he looked to where the wolf was a moment ago. "Why don't we check other parts? I'm sure four eyes are better than two."
Shirou only nodded before walking around with Gabu following really close, after a few minutes the dog was the first to talk. "So...you think the humans are behind this or could it be beastmans? I remember when the owner of Rabbittown tried to sell these kids. So maybe it's the same market?"
"I don't know, this kind of job is unique and it's not as if you could transplant them to another beastman, it's not as easy as human organs. The best choice, or worst, is that humans are trying to study our anatomy more. There were some laboratories in the past that did this." It reminded him where he found Rose and Kuro, they tried to make soldiers with the beastman but this wasn't the case for a long time. What could possibly change this fact?.
"What if the reason to attack such specific cityzens was because they had the blood type required or maybe because they are compatible?" Both froze on their feet as they stared at an empty storage, Gabu found it weird how clean it was but Shirou could smell something awkward. He walked in and took a deep breath taking his wolf form, moving his head a few times before looking back at Gabu.
"This place….we need to get the info, the scents here doesn't make sense, they are way too recent but there is no scent of what could be stored here." Gabu, who followed him inside, kneeled to touch the ground.
"And for how clean it is and the marks it was sued recently. This clearly shows a criminal group, we must inform the station and ask the administration to get the records of this location."
"You go and do that, I need to make a phone call first, thanks for help today." With that he walked away leaving the lieutenant with a weird expression on his face, Shirour was not someone who said thanks easily, sure he wasn't a jerk or someone without manners but still.
The phone was ringing, as he drinked a coffee he just buyed to have something his nose could smell so the blood wouldn't bother him, it took a while but the person on the other side of the phone finally picked up. "Ogami, what is it? I am busy, you know?"
"I know that very well flip, but I wouldn't call if it wasn't important would i? I found an empty storage unit on the port and it was recently cleaned, but the scents there don't make sense. Whoever is doing this knows very well about how I work and it's trying to distract me, the scent of your guys was there so they had been busy getting them. Has anyone got into fights with the family or something?" A minute of silence.
"No, not really or at least no one in the last months, things had been calm and even more with the change of path the family had. But this means there is someone very slippy or a traitor among us and that worries me. As you know this phone can't be intercepted but I know yours can. We will reduce the communication this way and I'll make sure my guys don't go around alone. Ogami, this alone makes it more dangerous, if they take so much effort to avoid you." His phone cracked a bit under the pressure of his hand. "It means they have a lot of info about the city."
After the call he went to the station where he catched Gabu and made his own report, explaining what flip had told him and what they suspect, that someone with access to dedicated information was leaking it to the outside. Meaning that once more they were in the eye of the storm and this time Ginrou could not be enough to keep everyone safe, just this thought made him feel like having a panic attack again and once more was Gabu the one who brushed that off after placing a supportive hand over his shoulder. "You know what Ogami? It's been a long day and even a longer week. Why don't you go home early and check on the little Tanuki? Make sure she is fine"
"No, I'm fine." He grunted but the hold on his shoulder began harder and was taken out of guard he showed a stoned face. "It was an order, go home now."
Harshly moving away he nodded, leaving the building to what the young officer only signed before looking back to the officers that stared at him and how he basically forced the wolf to go home like a kid when he was known for not taking direct orders. But while they thought this, the wolf made his way back to the co-op in silence, lost on his thoughts, if Flip didn't had an idea of who could be leaking the info then he could use the help of a certain mink who was always surrounded by problems but he could handle that and before he knew, his hand was already on the handle ready to open the door. The lights were off leaving only the kitchen on, so after closing the door thinking the couple was already asleep he went to the kitchen following his trustful nose, finding the back of a girl. Michiru human form eating cereal.
Who knows when it changed but in the past he would have found this annoying or even unpleasant, but right now, her appearance made him relax enough for his own human form to take over. "Hey there." His voice was calm but husky, which sent a chill on the girl back at the time she turned around holding her chest.
"S-shirou, don't scare me like that, I already ask you!" He almost let a huge smile shown on his face, amused by her reaction but he kept a calm face and as if it was a normal thing, he walked to her right to take a seat on the table. "I didn't meant to scare you, sorry, just wanted to talk a bit."
It took a few seconds for her brain to process those words since it was the first time he took the initiative to have a nice chat, but she didn't mind and it came to her mind that maybe this would make her clear her fears. "Having a chat sounds just fine. To be honest I had a few things to talk with you about...i...finally called my mom this morning." Silence, but it was not their usual comfy moment of silence, she was holding her breath while staring at the guy next to her, playing with her fingers didn't make much to calm her down, what if he got mad? What if he got disappointed?
"I see, you never mentioned her before. I hope she is alright." The way he said this was like if he didn't mind it, one could say that it almost sounded like it made him happy. "W-wait, you're not….angry?"
"No." With a puzzle yet somehow a serious face he stared at her. "Why would i?"
"Ah!...Well….c-cause they are humans?..."
"Yes, they are humans, it was obvious since you were born as one of them. But they are your family, if anything, I am relieved to see that it was something good for you." His hand was holding hers over the table, both of them stared at their hands and slowly both firmed up the grip. Carefully to not break the gesture, Michiru moved her chair closer to him till her head was leaning over his shoulder and he couldn't be more happy about it. 'You forgot that you showed me how humans can be trusted.'
Open to others it's the beginning of healing a broken heart, Ogami.
Once more that voice, thankfully this time Michiru was with him so he just brushed it away, deep in his mind but he could tell, this time it didn't leave at all. "Hey?..." Michiru's voice was soft as if she was asleep. "Yeah?" His on the other hand was husky but warm to her, not like when they first met.
"Can you promise me...you won't leave?..."
Gabu was grateful to Alan for at least leaving the control of the laboratories to the mayor, so they didn't need to contact him or his family to perform an investigation and the fact that the workers were now more calm since they could work without any secrets. Right now he was going around on the storage room but everything seemed to be in order, even after going inside the system it didn't shown any recent transportation of the items and chemicals so he had to check it with his own eyes and for that he asked to a few workers to follow him, yet somehow everything was in order once more. "This...doesn't make any sense, the chemicals are nowhere to be found in the city and there was nowhere else they could have gotten them."
"Well, if they weren't taken from here, what if someone bought them from outside then? It makes sense."
"Yes and no, if this was the case, these people had only begun to move quickly so we got some clues but if they really got them from outside, it had to be from a long time ago and the ship would be on the records….they were just recently found…" It caused him a hard headache, nothing made sense at all, they were playing with them and he knew it since Ogami found them the first time but he trusted his detective skills and yet here he was on a death end.
"Ugh...okay let's ask the other locations if they had moved their cargo recently, please look for the chemicals near locations." As the worker began to do as he was asked on the computer, his breath began a bit heavier while doing so, he made sure to check more than one time but there was no mistake, a big message on red letters covered the screen. "Uhm...s-sir I'm sorry but.." Gabu stared at the screen, morphin into a dog as he growled softly, it took a lot to make him angry enough to morph like other beastmans, but there was nothing he could think to calm himself.
"Access denied, database restricted to Anima City…" He was really close to snarl but he kept that under control since he was on duty, quickly after turning away he took his phone. "Hey its me, care to explain why the access to the other locations of the silvasta laboratories has ceased?" The voice on the other side was calm but annoying.
"Okay, yes I get that, but….yes I understand. Yet again this obstruction of an oficial research and it will be treated as such." He hung up the phone and slowly returned to his human form, staring at the screen he took a picture before taking some notes. "Okay, I guess we will have to do things on the old school yet again.
Back at the co-op, michiru was cleaning the few dishes that were on the sink as shirou cleaned the table, both had a silly smile on their faces, without knowing why, Shirou had told michiru that he wouldn't ever leave, without explicitly saying that he would stay with her but they didn't needed to say it out loud. Though the fact that he was now dying left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Hey?..." The tanuki voice was seductive and the fact that her fingertips were now slowly moving over Shirou's back didn't help him to keep his breathing under control. "What is it...Michiru?..."
"Nooothing, just wanted to do that. Goodnight grumpy old wolf." She giggled before running to her room, as he began to do the same, their eyes meet one last time and both morphed into their beast forms as if they were summoned by the other, they stared for a few seconds but for them it felt like hours. Without realising, shirou lowered his eyes to michiru lips as the girl only bite her lower lip, their breathing began to grow faster and their tails were now waging softly. This time Michiru was the one to break the moment by closing her door with a smirk. "Night~"
Shirou was left with a strange feeling, on one hand he knew the door was left open and on the other he knew that, if he dared to open that fragile wooden door, there was no going back. So he had to drag himself to his room, locking his door to make sure the tanuki wouldn't try to do what he was tempted to do. Looking at the books on the shelves he slowly picked one out. "I guess this is something I should add."
What was in his hands was nothing more but a diary, the whole room was full of them, some old and a bit damaged by the pass of time. Using an old feather pen he begins to write down his thoughts. 'I am sure now, I found michiru as a possible mate and this led me to one thing.' From his pocket he took out a silver ring, small on his hands. 'I love her….'
Wow, its waaaay easier to make some notes and then work with them as a sketch, tho the 10 hours shift doesn't leave anytime to pass them to clean. How ever, working seems to clear my mind and the ideas flow much easier now. Also since my work has something to do with security and guards ill work that part a bit more so michiru becomes a proper officer.
Had anyone notice the voice? Could it be Shirou conscience? Or maybe after so many years his brain its giving up? Also why does it seems so natural for them two to be close?