Moon Cats, Fearful Symmetry

Chapter Two

"Mamoru, would you please explain to me why you are staring at the wall?" Luna asked, Curiosity and mild disapproval filling her tone.

"Luna, your Naked!"

The Moon Cat turned human considered the sometimes prince of earths back, calmly sitting on an examination table. "Well yes, I am. Your nurse DID tell me that I should be."

"Um."

"This is, after all, a complete physical."

The embarrassed, new young doctor nodded, still facing the wall instead of her.

Luna sighed in frustration. 'I swear, sometimes he's worse then Usagi!' "It is hardly as though you haven't seen me unclothed before."

"What?" The shocked hero spun around, momentarily forgetting why he wasn't facing her. "I've never..."

"Mamoru!" Her stern, though not sharp, tone brought him up short. "I'm a cat most of the time, so other then a collar, of course I don't wear clothes." She paused at his frown, but started speaking again before he could. "You did the physicals for officer Shin and Ms. Mahara did you not?"

"Well yeah..."

"And were you embarrassed with them?"

Mamoru sighed. "No, Luna, but I don't know them!"

"Yes, I understand. However..." Her black tail, the one feline feature her shape shifting powers couldn't hide, slipped into view. "It is not as though I can visit another doctor, now is it?"

"Okay, you made your point."

"Was there really any doubt?" She asked as he started taking her vitals.

The former royal advisor to the Moon Kingdom and current advisor to the future Queen of Crystal Tokyo were relieved by his professionalism once he stated. She also approved of his gentle and efficient manner, with the exam being nearly over in just half an hour.

"You should get a monogram sometime in the near future, Luna. I don't have the equipment and in that exam, at least, you will be able to keep a skirt on."

"Very well." Luna said, then she smiled with just a hint of evil. "And I promise I won't tell Usagi about your intrest in my breasts." She is a cat, and they can't help playing with their prey.

Mamoru sputtered with indentation, inciting a burst of giggles from the transformed cat. "Oh get dressed!" He finally spit out.

Luna slid gracefully off the table and walked to the small exam rooms counter. "You really shouldn't be embarrassed. There's nothing wrong with nudity, and I'm not shy."

That's the moment, rather by fate or luck, the room's door swung open and Artemis stuck his head in the room. "Hey, Mamoru, have you seen Luna..."

There was one shining moment of frozen time as the two moon cats looked at each other. The jade green of the white haired neko-jin met Luna's crystalline emerald, both sets of eyes wide in surprise. Then Artemis's eyes drifted south.

"Eek!" Luna squeaked then dove out of sight behind the exam table. "Go away!" She hissed.

"Um... Uh... Meeting... Whole Unit... One hour... Bye..." He shut the door, somewhat reluctantly Mamoru thought. Turning the young doctor watched Luna peek her head over the stainless steel table.

"Is he gone?" She asked timidly.

Mamoru fell down, he started laughing so hard.

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Lt. Ichiro Hibuki strode calmly into the wardroom, looking over his small but hand picked unit from the front of the small, auditorium like room.

Detective Sergeant Hiroshi Shimaka sat in part of the room with Detectives Kiechi Tokomi, Ruy Masaki, and Ken Mendou, along with Artemis. Across the room from the young detectives Luna 'Tsukino' sat with Keiko Mahara, the only other secretary so far assigned thanks to a flu bug going around and Reika Hagisaki. Mamrou sat behind them along with his nurse whose name Hibuki couldn't remember, with an odd smile on his face.

Sitting in the middle of the room, scattered among each other, were the small number of interns and young, almost rookie, and officers. The uniforms were the one group Hibuki hadn't selected him self and through some bureaucratic snafu no sergeants had been given to him to keep them in line. The most experienced in the group with two years on the job, Maya Shin who was ironically also his only female officer, had done an admirable job filling in for that role and Hibuki had already filed a promotion request instead of a personnel request only a few days after meeting her.

Luna had assured him she'd get it processed by the end of the month, but Hibuki doubted it.

"Good morning, people." He greeted his troops. "First off, let me complement you all on a job well done. I was pleased by every one of you coming in to clean and decorate. Especially those who chipped in for some creature comforts... though the huge plasma screen TV might have been a bit much!"

"The room chuckled as the boss gestured to the large screen behind him, grinning at Reika's blush. "Please keep in mind that it's to be used for official presentations BEFORE baseball games and movies!"

"And I am also pleased, or almost pleased, to inform you that the brass has declared us fully operational. Unfortunately a stack of file folders came with the activation order. We have our first case, ladies and gentlemen."

"Fred, the remote please." The small Golem, who the staff had dubbed "The King" (Short for the Paperweight King) after everyone had adapted to him, hefted the Power Point controller and carried it to the CAPPA commander. He took it with a thank you, then stepped over to the light controls and dimmed the lights.

"This," he said, pressing the controls "Is, or rather was, one Himeko Lenore. Her body was discovered two nights ago by a dockworker that was investigating a bad smell from an unused warehouse." Another click changed the view, showing a circle of brown symbols surrounding the girl's body. The circle filled half the plain concrete floor, with several yellow markers from CSI scattered around. "The ritualistic nature of the killing, including the circle drawn in the victims blood, is why it was given to us. And this is a priority case folks. This is the third such killing in as many weeks." Another command key replaced the horrible image with the school photos of three young girls.

"Himeko, along with Yumi Tamsi and Chinko Sendou, was all of fourteen and attending one of the more prestigious high schools in the area. All three were near the top of their class and athletes of some form or another. Also, as you can see, all three girls were rather attractive young ladies."

"From what the ME's could determine, along with the Missing Persons Division, all three girls were kidnapped walking home from school between twenty four and thirty six hours before they died. Rope Marks on the body show they were bound but none were sexually assaulted." Shutting down the screen Hibuki stepped back to the podium at the front of the room. "Patrolmen. You will all be assigned different high schools, which you will keep an eye on. Detectives, you will soon have complete case files on your desks to read, and later today the detectives in charge of these cases will be here for you to interview directly. Meanwhile I would like Mr. Yui and Ms. Hagisaki to look over the most recent crime scene to get her take on things."
"Dr. Chiba, you're going to be visiting the morgue and the ME to make your own examination of the body. Work as a team people, because we can not risk letting these freaks go free!"

Shimaka raised a hand, and asked at Hibuki's nod. "We're sure it's more then one person then?"

"CSI found footprints of at least four different sizes at one crime scene, the first girl was found in a rock quarry. We are sure."

"Wonderful. Where were all three bodies found?"

"A rock quarry, a condemned apartment building, and the warehouse in order of discovery. A map has been sent over, but the officers before believed they were convenient locations and not significant other then that."

"Now, if there are no other questions?" The room as whole shook their heads. "Good. Then one final announcement. I'm going to be posting a schedule for every Member of CAPPA including our administrative staff, but not you interns, to receive weapon's training with the SDF depot. The higher ups have decided we are going to be one of the rare units issued firearms. Anyone with a problem with that report to me and I'll cut you transfer papers. Dismissed!"

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AN: I cut the story short there because it was running long. The investigation will start in earnest next chapter.

If you couldn't guess, Reika was the primary "Chipper in" for the luxury items. Aside from being rich and caring for her co-workers she thought it was ironic for the police to benefit from Yakuza money.

And finally, the issue the MOST people are going to get ticked about, the guns! Yes, most Japanese Street cops, like in England and a few other countries don't carry obvious firearms. However all those countries have exceptions to that stereotype as well as swat teams and streamlined methods of getting military assistance which the US does NOT have. CAPPA, having to deal with highly dangerous things like Youma qualifies as special cases, especially thanks to the public awareness that Beryl's Generals were vengeful means that the 'Civilian' administrative staff are also getting weapons to defend themselves and the interns. It's a little strange, but so are Youma.