Chapter Three - Between The Lines
Amon drove his black sports car down the morning streets of Japan. Dojima was snoozing in the passenger seat next to him, something he was not accustom to yet. Robin never slept in his car, especially not on a mission. Amon drove silently and thought to himself. He turned a corner, then another, then another. A small snort followed by a few snores came from Dojima's direction. Amon rolled his eyes and turned on his radio. The clock on his radio said 9:20am. A commercial for something came on and Amon turned down the volume. The jingle that went along with it sparked a memory. Amon began to hum something to himself without even relizing it. He turned a few more corners and soon pulled onto a private street, barley wide enough for one car. He stopped humming, shook his head, and called Michael.
Yes Amon. I called ahead to make sure someone was still living there and they are expecting you." Michael said.
"Okay." Amon ended the call and woke up Dojima with a start by stepping on his brakes hard in front of a long driveway.
"What the..." Dojima awoke and looked around.
"Press the button." Amon said coldly as Dojima rolled down the window and pressed an intercom button.
"Hello?" A voice came over.
"We called earlier to come talk to you about Hiro Kasaki." Amon said from the driver's seat as Dojima yawned.
"Yes of course, please come in." The voice said then followed by a click and two large silver gates began to open, allowing Amon to drive up the driveway. Amon stepped gentle on the gas and drove up the long driveway. The driveway arched back down to the road, and Amon drove up right in front on the large white house. A tall fountain sat in the front yard with a stone path lined on both sides with flowers leading from the fountain to the driveway. Amon shut down and both he and Dojima got out and started up the marble steps to the large house. The front door was a double black door and had a golden lion door knocker on both. As Amon was about to ring the bell, the left door opened and a lady in her late eighties stepped out. She was in a blue and white dress and she had long gray hair that was pulled back into a tight bun.
"You must be from newspaper." The elderly woman said with a smile. Dojima and Amon looked at each other and then nodded their heads.
"Please come right in." She moved aside and lead the two inside.
"My name is Yurika and this is my partner Amon." Dojima said with a smile. Amon nodded his head in recognition.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Mai-Li Kasaki." The woman smiled. "Please, have a seat." She lead them over to the smoking room where Amon and Dojima sat on a tan couch and Mai-Li sat on a matching tan chair. As they sat, Dojima removed her coat and Amon placed his black gloves into his pocket, not taking his coat off. Dojima pulled out a pad of paper and pen from her purse and wrote own Mai-Li's name on the top.
"Mrs. Kasaki, is it okay if we ask you a few questions about your son, Hiro?" Dojima asked. Mai-Li nodded in agreement.
"Our records down at the station say that Hiro was married, yet we have no information about her. Or about his marriage. Could you fill us in please?" Dojima asked, pen at the ready.
"Ah... Kagome Fuu. She was a very bright young girl. And very beautiful too. She was the best friend of my eldest daughter Sakura., only a year older then Hiro, but that didn't stop them. He fell in love with her at high school. They dated when they went to college and married shortly after graduation. They had one child, a girl, named Li. They moved in here with me a year after Li was born. Sadly, Kagome died shortly after that. A strange illness that stripped her of all her beauty right before death. Hiro's only reason for living after her untimely death was that of Li and his sisters. Poor thing." The woman said and looked over at the small table next to her chair which held a bunch of different sized photos of girls and one boy. Dojima took notes.
"About his sisters. When Heaven died, how was Hiro affected?" Dojima asked.
"Heaven. My youngest. Yes she was a twin, but she was the youngest. Her death tore us all. Hope swore to do something to prevent this from happening to other models. Sakura pushed her wedding with Dr. Mugen Tu for a whole year do to the morning of her sister. And Hiro, he slipped into depression. His relationship with Li began to crumble. She wanted to design clothes, and when she told her father, he flipped. Screamed and yelled. Li ran away for about a month after that. When she returned, Sakura was moving out. See, all my children lived with me, until they got married. In Hiro's case, he moved back in. Sakura got married and Li was picked to be the maid of honor. At the reception, she was joking around about how if the dresses were different, it would look better against the cherry blossoms. That's when Hiro snapped. I never saw him again." The woman picked up a photograph and looked at it as Dojima took more notes.
"Grandma, who are you talking to?" A girl with long red hair came into the room. She was wrapped up in a pink bathrobe. She had bright blue eyes and looked to be about twenty.
"Li, these are people from the newspaper...Yurika and Amon.:" The woman said. Amon and Dojima stood up.
"I'm Li." The girl smiled.
"Grandma, I'm heading off to work in an hour. Need anything?" Li asked.
"No dead, thank you." The woman smiled as Li bowed and left the room. The woman check her watch and stood up.
"I'm sorry, I hope you don't mind if I cut this short, I have an appointment to get to." Mai-Li smiled and bowed. She lead them to the door as Dojima put her coat on.
"That you Mrs. Kasaki, you've been a great help." Dojima said as she and Amon headed back down to the car. In the car, Amon put his gloves back on and drove away.
"Well, at least we learned something, better head back to base. Maybe Karasuma and Sakaki have something." Dojima said as they headed back.
A/N-Well? Please R&R
