Hello once again! We have enforced holiday here in sunny SARS-ridden Singapore, meaning that I have much more time to write than my teachers would consider healthy. ^_^ And they've just extended it by another week… fufufufufufufufufufufu…
My main fic The Great Wars of the World is now on hiatus, since having three uncompleted fics isn't a very good idea… Therefore I shall be completing Enigma: Tokyo, and Beautiful Dream (Weiss Kreuz) before I resume work.
Oh yes. Please note that speech spoken in mandarin (Chinese) is denoted by ++speech++.
That's all minna, happy reading! *Waves*
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Review response:
roku kyu – Ahhhhhhhhhh… *faints that such a well-known authoress would review her humble little story* *Muses slap her back into consciousness* Thank you for the nice review! ^_^
Sansele – One of these days Aki-chan is gonna blow up because of you… Where am I gonna get a drama muse then? (Akito would like you to know that he is considering extensive damage to certain characters…)
tasuki-fan – Thank you!
Kai – Wars is on hiatus. And if you're bored you can do my Chinese homework. ^_^ Ne?
Syane – Ah yes, You're Under Arrest. They're still showing it here in Singapore… It just came out with a season two I believe… And yes, some of the other Suzaku Seishi are in here… You just need to look out for them. *Nods* And thank you for all the other nice comments!
Wingsong – Wing-chan! ^_^ Nope, Sho Fei is an OC, but other people from the series will pop up as well! And if you're feeling tired, sugar is good. *Nods* Sugar sugar… *evil laugh*
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(Beta Read by Sansele)
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"……" Speech
(……) Authors Notes/ Comments
[……] Thoughts
((……)) Sounds
*……* Actions/Emotions
"++……++" Spoken in Chinese/Mandarin
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[Fushigi Yuugi Belongs to Watase Yuu]
[Original characters, plotline, etc are the intellectual property of Draconsis]
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[ Enigma: Tokyo ]
= File #02 – Six Bullets =
The rain thudded against the windowpanes; a relentless drumming that hammered its way into one's mind. It swept through the streets in a howling fury, pouncing upon every unfortunate human being in its path. A sudden summer storm distinctly out of place in mid-autumn, it blasted across the city in sheets, worming its way into every dry patch available.
Genrou slid open the sliding door to the balcony, grabbing a few more articles of laundry that had been placed outside to dry. He used his foot to open the door, quickly leaping through it as the troublesome door slammed shut behind him.
[Stupid door.] He glared at the offending object.
The rain had caught them unawares, resulting in a mad scramble to bring in their laundry. The investigator unceremoniously dumped the wet clothes onto the couch, rushing off to gather the next load.
"I'm tellin' ya Kouji, that woman is insane." He grumbled, holding opening the sliding door for Kouji to get through.
"Nah, I bet she's just a bit unfriendly wi' y'all cause she's new an' all." Kouji answered. Genrou had been ranting on and on about Sho Fei since he had returned, and there was only so much a guy could take.
The rain was getting even heavier, making each foray out to the balcony much like taking a cold shower. All the clothes would probably need a second washing, and Kouji was thankful that it was a Friday. God knows what they would have to wear the next day if it was a Sunday.
"I'm serious! She even cleaned her desk, and then she cleaned her chair an' all…" Genrou grabbed more laundry off the line, letting the door slide shut behind him.
Kouji could hear the bouncy footsteps of a certain purple-haired officer bounding up the stairwell. [About time.] "Yo, Gen! Ryuuen's back!"
"Thank god." Genrou turned around, forgetting that the door had happily slid shut just a moment ago.
Of course, he walked into it.
"OW! SHIT!"
Kouji burst into laughter.
"TADAIMASU!!!!!!!!" Ryuuen burst through the door, the genki officer finally back from his shift. A deluge of rain followed the Ikebukuro officer into the apartment, forming a small pond in the entrance area.
Genrou shoved open the door and dumped the new batch of clothes on top of those already on the couch, giving Kouji a dirty look.
Kouji innocently smiled back.
Ryuuen blinked. "Did I miss something?"
"Yea." Kouji pointed at Genrou. "Gen-chan's been complaining about his new partner for the last coupla hours." He grinned at a still-fuming Genrou. "He thinks she's insane."
Ryuuen gave Genrou a funny look. "Did you walk into the sliding door again?"
Genrou ignored his two flat mates, both of whom had started laughing at him again.
-~=*[^]*=~-
((RING RING)) ((RING RING)) ((RING RING))
"Would someone PLEASE get the phone?" Ryuuen yelled from his room. Ikebukuro had much more paperwork than Shinjuku, and right now he felt as if his new post was trying to murder him using several tons of it.
[That's a new one… Murder by Paperwork…]
The ringing abruptly stopped, and was soon followed by several choice words that would have left a Mafia member white with shock.
[Ooh, I bet Gen-chan has a new case.]
A few slamming noises from the room next to his sounded very much like Genrou flinging open his cupboard, and an almighty crash signaled the departure of one seriously annoyed investigator from their apartment.
Ryuuen smiled to himself. Genrou was Genrou, loud, noisy, and always in a rush. Though Genrou seemed like just another one of those coarse, uncaring young men who were trying to scrape their way through life, Ryuuen knew better. That Genrou had joined the police force instead of pursuing further education, or even a better paid or less dangerous job, was a testament to this fact. Genrou would try his utmost to help those who had been wronged, and he put his heart and soul into solving every single case.
Ryuuen looked at his tower of paperwork and sighed. [Too bad Gen-chan would never help me with the paperwork.]
-~=*[^]*=~-
"Moshi moshi?" Sho Fei picked up the telephone, slipping easily into Japanese.
"Fei?" A high-pitched female voice asked.
"Yuriko?" Sho Fei cradled the receiver against her shoulder, her hands busy tying up her long, reddish-black hair.
"Hai!" The other voice cheerfully replied. "There's a new case that's just come in, Kokusai-Kachou wants you and Hayakou-san to work on it."
Sho Fei let loose a small sigh. Her new partner was rough, uncouth, rude, as well as lacking determination. He gave up on paperwork barely ten minutes after starting! How he would be like on a case was probably not much better. He was probably one of those people who had joined the police force since they thought it was cool, or since they weren't smart enough to do anything else.
"Fei?"
"I'll be right down." She answered. Her bag was already hanging from the coat rack beside the door; all she needed to do was to change into some proper clothes.
She changed into a pale yellow shirt, complimented with black pants, before slipping on her jacket and slinging on her bag. Making sure all the lights were off, she left the apartment, locking it and heading out into the oncoming darkness.
-~=*[^]*=~-
A picture of the victim flashed onto the screen, a teenaged boy sprawled out face down on the floor, multiple bullet holes riddling his back. Blood had formed a small puddle beneath him, a look of shock permanently etched onto his face.
Murder was never a pretty sight.
"The victim's name is Chu Ryu, a Chinese studying here in Tomigaoka High School. Seventeen years of age, only child of a Chinese merchant." The Shinjuku Chief sat to the side of the screen, the projector throwing an eerie light onto his sculpted features. "He was killed in his apartment, estimated time of death is mid-afternoon. His landlady, who was checking to see if he had enough food to prepare dinner, found him."
Kokusai handed out a manila folder each to Shun'u and Sho Fei, the latter immediately opening her folder to study its contents. Hayakou saw her diligently reading, and his eyes narrowed slightly, before he too flipped open his folder.
The Chief sighed. At this rate, he would be lucky if they didn't murder each other over the course of the investigation.
He had to assign this case to them. Chu Ryu's parents only spoke Chinese, and Sho Fei was the only officer he had that knew the language. The victim's parents weren't some small time shop owners either… Chu Jirun, the father, was the CEO of Kawasaki, one of China's biggest Shipping companies. Bu Kazan, the mother, was also the daughter of a minor official.
[All the ingredients for a nice stew of international trouble.] He mused. At least the parents hadn't blown up when they knew about their child's death. But he could foresee major problems if the case wasn't quickly solved, or if the case wasn't solved at all. So he had to use Hayakou Shun'u, Shinjuku's best investigator, for the job.
They were both glaring at each other now, and he wondered if it would be better if he had assigned the case to another pair.
"Sorry I'm late, no da!"
Kokusai heaved a sigh of relief as Mori Houjun burst into the briefing room. The forensic scientist greeted all of them, before handing out another stack of manila folders.
A new set of photos flashed onto the screen, the victim taken from all angles as well as snapshots of the room he had been found in.
Houjun promptly began a detailed explanation of the death, his tendency to put a 'no da' at the end of each sentence forgotten with the seriousness of the case.
"Chu Ryu died at around 4.20pm, based on the temperature of the body. The security system recorded his entrance at 4.03pm, and it would have taken less than three minutes for him to use the lift and enter his flat. The landlady checked up on him at around 5pm, so there isn't much of an available time period."
He flipped to the next picture, a close up of the bullet wounds on the victim's back.
"He was shot six times, but no gun shots were heard, so the weapon was probably equipped with a long range silencer. Based on the bullets, it was probably a .38 Smith and Wesson long-range revolver, and the fact that a revolver's clip carries a maximum of six bullets."
Houjun tapped the various bullet holes with a long ruler as he continued to explain.
"It was probably an assassin, since these two bullet holes-" He tapped the two opposing ones lodged into the center of the victim's back. "- Were meant to puncture the victim's lungs, which they did." He tapped another hole, this one in the upper left corner of Chu Ryu's back. "This one entered the heart." A bullet hole in the lower back. "This one hit the liver."
He flipped to another picture, this one of two bullet wounds in the head region.
"This one here hit the spinal cord, and this one entered his brain."
By now all three police were feeling very disgusted, even Sho Fei had a look of revulsion on her face. Someone had really wanted Chu Ryu dead.
"It has to be a highly skilled assassin, since the killer managed to hit all the vital organs. The bullet to the head or to the heart would have been enough, but the ones in the liver and spinal cord were probably meant to make sure that even if the victim lived, he would most probably be a vegetable, or in a coma. The ones in the lungs would have left the victim to choke upon his own blood, if the other bullets hadn't reached their targets. The bullets were also shot from behind, and the exact placement of vital organs is much harder from behind."
The projector whirred loudly in the silent room. The new picture was of a window that looked out across the street to another block of apartments, it's lying shattered on the ground.
"The killer probably shot through the glass, from the top of the apartment blocks opposite. Another reason why it had to be a assassin, since the killer had to shoot a target over thirty meters away, and had to compensate for the refraction caused by the window plane."
"Have you checked the top deck of those apartment blocks yet?" Sho Fei asked, her head tilted slightly to the side.
Genrou gave her a dirty look.
"Err… Sort of, na no da." Houjun shuffled around. "The rain was well under way before I managed to reach the crime scene, and the rain probably washed away many clues."
Shun'u slapped a hand to his forehead. "Damn!" The rain seemed to meddle into just about everything!
This time, Sho gave him a dirty look.
Genrou glared back at her.
Kokusai Hitei coughed loudly, and the two investigators immediately turned back to face him. "Go check the crime scene please. I expect the parents will be there in about an hour, they're flying over on a private plane."
Shun'u whistled. "Rich people."
Sho Fei rolled her eyes very slightly.
The chief twitched. "Mori-san, please accompany them."
Houjun had picked up on their enmity as well, and he shot Hitei a despairing glance. The chief could practically hear the 'Do I really have to, no da?' coming out.
"The address is in the folders."
Houjun practically slumped in his seat as the two partners left the room, before gathering up his folders and following them out.
The Chief of the Shinjuku Homicide Investigation Department made a mental note to never, ever, ever create such a partnership ever again.
-~=*[^]*=~-
"I'm Hayakou Shun'u, Central Investigation Department, Shinjuku." Genrou flashed his ID at the two police officers guarding the scene. Behind him, Sho Fei wordlessly flashed her ID, and the two investigators were ushered into the apartment of the victim. Houjun had left to examine the building opposite to them, leaving them alone with the officer who had done the preliminary investigation.
The body had been removed, a white chalk outline marking its former placement. However, the carpet was still stained a vivid red, and the shattered glass pieces still lay beneath the window. The apartment smelled faintly of disinfectant, and the black and yellow police tape crisscrossing the doorway.
It was a small apartment, consisting of just a bedroom, a study, and a living room with an attached kitchenette. It was tastefully done up in varying shades of brown, with the occasional glint of light from a trophy case in the corner of the room.
Shun'u strode over to the bookcase cum trophy case, his eyes landing upon the many gold trophies inside. He whistled. "Will ya look at this... Top in Class for Year One, Top in Class for Year Two, Gold award in the 45th Computer Skill championships, Silver award in 38th Tokyo Football championships…" His eyes traveled down the bookcase. "With four shelves more to go."
"Hn." Sho Fei straightened up from behind the couch, having found nothing underneath. Not even dust bunnies.
"Hayakou-san, Sho-san?" A soft voice inquired.
The two Shinjuku investigators turned to face their colleague, who had done the preliminary investigation. Mirai Kagaya was from the Nakano division, a smaller investigative division just outside the Shinjuku area. The call had originally been fielded there, as the apartment was located in Nakano, but the importance of the case had merited a transfer to the large, better, and well-equipped Shinjuku division.
"Yeah?" Genrou turned away from the cupboard to face him.
The blonde handed them a small report, consisting of further details of the situation. "Chu Ryu's parents should be here soon."
The doorbell rang.
-~=*[^]*=~-
"Mori-san?" Kagaya approached the forensic scientist, carefully avoiding the various bags and implements strewn about.
Houjun looked up from the ledge he had been inspecting, mentally cursing the rain. "Hai, no da?"
The Nakano investigator nodded and placed a copy of his report under a bag, making sure that it didn't get wet. "Hayakou-san and Sho-san are talking with the victim's parents right now." He smiled slightly. "Just thought I would let you know before I knocked off."
Houjun grunted and was about to resume his work, when the other man's parting words struck him.
"Wait a sec, no da. You left the both of them with the parents, and no one else?" He could practically hear the alarm bells going off.
"Yep." Kagaya cocked his head to one side and grinned before walking down the fire escape.
"Oh god."
-~=*[^]*=~-
"++You just have to find my son's murderer, you must!++" The middle-aged woman sobbed hysterically into her handkerchief.
"++I will, but we need you to help us-++" Sho Fei began.
"++We'll do anything!++" A fresh round of tears cut of the investigator. "++Right, hubby? ++"
Chu Jirun nodded. "++Anything, to get revenge for our son. ++"
Sho Fei sighed mentally. She had met this sort of people back in China, the ones who would really do anything when they felt they had been wronged. At least they weren't the sort that hired thugs to assist in the investigation.
The victim's father had remained calm, if a little pale in the face. Bu Kazan, the mother, had been hysterical when they had first ushered her into her late son's apartment, but she had calmed down somewhat.
Worst of all was her temporary partner. Even if he couldn't speak Chinese, he could at least pretend to pay attention, instead of wandering around the house. If the victim's parents believed that he wasn't taking the case seriously…
Shortly they had arrived, Kagaya had quietly excused himself, leaving her alone with a couple of desperate parents and a louse of a partner. She had been trying to get some information out of them, but so far it hadn't worked.
"++You must help us avenge our son! You MUST! ++" The lady broke into yet another hysterical wail.
She decided that the mother wouldn't be of any help to the case.
"++Mr. Chu, would you know of any difficulties your son might be having, or anybody he was enemies with? ++" She asked the father, her palmtop at the ready.
"++No, Ryu was always very obedient. He wasn't involved with loan sharks or anything. ++" Chu Jirun said. "++He was a model student. ++"
Sho Fei nodded, waiting for him to continue, which he did in a halting voice.
"++He had many friends in school, he sent us many photos of them. He didn't have any vices, not like so many other young people. ++" The man paused, looking at a photo of their family on a nearby table. "++The School was always using him as a representative. In fact, he just completed a work experience program at my trading partner's firm. ++"
Sho Fei looked up from her palmtop. "++Do you know of anything where he might have recorded down any clues? Such as a diary? ++"
The Shipping merchant shook his head. "++No, I do not. But he was always a very organized person; maybe his organizer has something written inside, or a folder in his computer. ++"
His gaze fell onto the dining table, where the contents of Chu Ryu's school bag lay. The police had taken them out to search for clues, but had found none so far. The black organizer, embossed with his school logo, lay amidst on top of a neat stack of textbooks.
The laptop had been set up on a table, complete with cables that connected it to a printer and scanner. Sho Fei had decided long ago to bring it back and have a look at it.
-~=*[^]*=~-
Genrou grimaced. The three of them had been going on, and on, and on, and on in Chinese for the last half an hour, and it was driving him nuts. Even if he couldn't understand a word of Chinese, he had hoped that Sho Fei would have translated some of it for him.
[Fat hope that was.] He snorted, continuing to look through the neat bookcase.
Since he couldn't take part in the interview, he had decided to search the rest of the apartment, starting with Chu Ryu's room. It was a bit disconcerting to find a room so neat that it didn't look lived in, but it made searching a lot easier. He had already finished flipping through the textbooks to make sure that there weren't any blackmail notes inside, and he was about to start searching for any controlled substances in the bedside table.
"Hayakou-san." Sho Fei strode into the room.
'What'cha want?" he glared back at her.
She met his glare with a cool glare of her own. "I have finished interviewing the victim's parents. What are you doing?"
"I'm searching fer clues!" He snapped back at her.
"Have you found anything?"
She ticked him off, she did, what with that high and mighty tone she used, and how she practically ignored him as if she alone could solve the case. Well, see if she could solve anything based on talking to a hysterical woman and shocked man.
"Nope." He picked the last textbook off the shelf and flipped through it.
She left.
-~=*[^]*=~-
[Blasted man.] She cursed mentally as she left the room. He couldn't even be polite!
She paused for a second before turning to face the parents, breathing deeply to calm herself down.
"++Mr. Chu, Mrs. Chu, we will do our utmost to bring you son's killer to justice. ++" They both nodded back, Bu Kazan finally regaining some self-control.
"++We may have to bring some items down to the station for further investigation, is that fine with the both of you? ++" She gestured to the laptop.
"++It's fine. ++" The mother replied, still dabbing her eyes with the handkerchief.
Sho Fei nodded. "++I suggest that you both get some rest, it must have been a stressful day for the both of you. ++" It was a simple matter now to get them out from under the investigators' feet, so that further investigations could begin.
They both left the room where their son had been brutally murdered a few hours ago, ducking under the black and yellow police tape. She watched them leave, the reason why she had become a police officer echoing through her head.
[So that innocent people will not be killed, and their killers brought to justice.]
-~=*[^]*=~-
"Shit." Genrou cursed his computer. Why did they have to go and computerize everything? The blasted piece of scrap metal that sat on his desk was refusing to operate again, the pointy white thing that moved was also stuck in place.
He stood up to go find help.
-~=*[^]*=~-
"The thing up and died on me, again." He complained to Houjun as they walked down the corridor leading to the investigators office.
"You mean it hanged, no da." Houjun cast a knowing glance at his computer-illiterate friend.
"It didn't hang, it doesn't have any rope to hang itself with!"
Houjun rolled his eyes. "That's the term for when it gets stuck, no da."
"Oh…" He regained his composure. "It's a stupid term, it makes no sense!" Genrou threw open the door.
His computer was happily scanning through its files to check for errors due to an improper shut down.
"What the…" The redhead glared at the computer.
"It's called control, alternate, delete. It restarts your computer." Sho Fei sarcastically cut him off. Her laptop had been plugged into the office systems on her first day, and now wires trailed all down the desk, connecting it to various devices. The light from its screen cast a bluish glow over her face, making her ice blue eyes seem to mock him even more.
He glared at her.
So she thought she was smart, eh, what with her fancy dandy new palmtop and her knowledge of IT. Well, she wasn't the best investigator Shinjuku had to offer, she was only a transfer in from China. And he was getting sick of her hoity-toity attitude.
"Genrou." Houjun laid a hand on his shoulder, effectively stopping the hotheaded investigator.
"What?" He snapped.
Houjun's steady brown gaze bore into him. "Do you have a copy of Mirai-san's preliminary report? I seem to have lost mine."
Genrou exhaled loudly. His disciplinary record wasn't one of the best, and Kokusai-Kachou had made it clear that any mishaps would jeopardize his job. Times were hard, and even if he could solve almost every case, a black mark against him would not work in his favor if they had to retrench officers. He might be the best in Shinjuku, but there were always other divisions, and better investigators.
He picked the report off his desk and handed it to the forensic scientist, slumping into his chair. Houjun cast a worried glance around the room before shutting the door behind him, leaving him and the crazy Chinese officer alone.
He couldn't wait till she had to go back to China.
-~=*[Tsuzuku, To Be Continued]*=~-
Story notes
Victim's Injuries – I'm no biology student, but I guess it's roughly correct… But Sansele (who is a Biology student) helped me a lot with it… So… *Shrugs*
Loan Sharks – I don't know if this exists in other countries… It's people who illegally lend out money, and want it returned with a very high interest rate, and are normally gangsters, etc…
Chinese – Mandarin is very different from Japanese, even though the Kanji characters and the Chinese characters overlap.
That's all for this chapter minna, remember to read and review! ^_^ There's also my Weiss fics, and Saiyuki fics… Won't you have a little look?
Muses: *Bonk Draconsis*
Grrr…
~Draconsis, 5th April 2003, 3.45pm Singapore time
-/--/--/-
Genrou: Crazy woman. The case will never get solved!
Sho Fei: *ignores him*
Genrou: Why you…
Houjun: Maa, maa… Can't we all just get along, no da?
Hitei: *Scary look* You all certainly should…
Genrou + Sho Fei + Houjun: *Sweatdrop*
Houjun: Stay tuned for the next explosive chapter of Enigma Tokyo… Provided Genrou and Sho Fei don't blow up the station first. *Worried look*
-/--/--/-
"It didn't hang, it doesn't have any rope to hang itself with!" -Genrou