AN: It's been a while hasn't it. I'm lazy by nature, so I update things slowly. That and I've got sports too, so my days are crowded with practice.
Disclaimer: No character appearing in this fictional story are owned by me.
Tsukiko got out of the taxi she was in and looked around. She hadn't been back to her house in years. She always said she was busy, or that she couldn't find a way to get there, but now things were different.
"Hey! Don't go leaving now, that's 3,280 yen, now pay up!" Tsukiko whirled around to see an angry cab driver. "You made me drive all the way out here, so pay up!" Tsukiko reached into her pocket only to come up empty handed. She didn't have any money on her, and something told her that wasn't a good answer.
"Here." A hand came out, seemingly from no where and handed the man the money. Tsukiko whirled around to see her father. She could barely recognize him, not having seen him in over four years.
"Count yourself lucky girl." The cab driver rolled up the window and drove off in to the country side back towards the city, the only thing still visible being the ad on the side which read, 'Barred from a vacation? Try EXILE ENDED for an affordable return to happiness'. Her father grunted at the cab driver as he left. "Damn tourists, they keep at it like this and the old bastard'll fire me."
"Well Tsukiko it's about time you came for a visit, I hope I didn't frighten you away when you were young." Her father was an old man in his late fifties. He held a pack of 'Mild Seven' cigarettes in his hands and was smoking one at the moment. He drew in a long breath, brought the cigarette away from his mouth and spewed out the smoke. "Well, it's a long walk to the house, you tell me about how you've been all these years."
"All right chief, jump!" Two men, one middle aged, the other in his thirties, jumped off a moving train and shoulder-rolled onto the soft grass. One of the men got up and turned to the other.
"Damnit Maniwa! I'm too old for this." The middle aged man was clutching his shoulder in pain.
"Don't worry chief, It doesn't look broken." The Chief looked at Maniwa in rage.
"I don't care if it's broken, it still hurts like hell! Forget it, let's just get to the Sagi residence." The two men turned around and headed further into the endless plane of grass called the country side. "Hey Maniwa, where the hell do you get the idea of sending me all the way out here?"
Maniwa grinned before answering the question. "It's all part of being a holy warrior. Only chosen ones can defeat this scourge of morals."
Humor aside this greatly worried Ikari. Ever since the lil' slugger epidemic Maniwa had loss his hold on reality and sounded more and more like Makoto Kozuka's self-image. And yet the entire time he was always one step ahead of all the other players. That was what truly worried the chief, he'd bet his detective's intuition on it.
It didn't take much walking to reach the Sagi residence. It was about the same size as most homes and was done in the traditional Japanese style of architecture. They walked up the front steps and knocked on the front door. Some footsteps could be heard and the door open to reveal Tsukiko and Mr. Sagi.
"May I help you gentlemen? Hey, aren't you that fella that was asking about O-" Mr. Sagi suddenly cut himself off and faked a cough. "I mean Lil' Slugger, right?" Maniwa nodded silently.
"We're hear because a sign is about to appear. And as a holy warrior we must see it." Maniwa proclaimed as if he was on a movie set. Mr. Sagi looked at him with an expression of bewilderment. Clearly this city fellow didn't realize it was never a good idea to start the day off with a stiff drink. Ikari quickly spoke so as to pardon Maniwa's absurdness.
"Sorry sir, police slang. We think that an incident may occur soon. We were tipped off this morning. It's probably nothing." Ikari sincerely hoped this man didn't call the real cops down here. He'd be committed to an institution immediately. He was worried about himself really, he was tough, but Maniwa would be in there for a long time if someone found out about his insanity.
"Nothing huh? How rude." A sly, eccentric voice seem to snake it's way through the halls of the Sagi residence. "After all, I'm right here." And it was true. There he was again, lil' Slugger. He was standing in the entrance hall of the house. Everyone except Mr. Sagi gasped. Sagi seemed to take this not only rather well, but with familiarity. A small light though soon came between lil Slugger and the detectives.
"So it's you. I don't care about what you plan on doing. I'm going to do what I planned on from the beginning. So out of my way!" lil' Slugger Swung and smashed his bat into the light. The light seemed to shatter into a thousand iridescent pieces. Lil' Slugger then disappeared through the wall leaving both a flabbergasted Ikari, and a sighing Mr. Sagi.