For the twelfth time today, Ruriko Midorikawa looked at the date and time on her laptop. Only a few minutes passed since the last time she looked at it. Still, she couldn't help it after everything that happened. Three whole days, she counted. Three days passed since she met that photographer, and she had no word whatsoever since then.
Ruriko impatiently pushed a long strand of hair out of her eyes. The minutes ticked into two hours before she excused herself. She left the hustle and bustle of her company's newsroom for the balcony outside. It wasn't much, but she had to clear her head from the smoke and rattling keyboards.
Ruriko gripped her cell phone to keep the wind from blowing it away and down to the street several stories below. "Come on. Pick up!" she said after dialing the number she had memorized by now.
A voice blared from her cell phone, almost obnoxiously over the traffic. "Hey! This is Ichimonji speaking! I'm currently not in, but if you leave a message–"
Ruriko slammed her cell phone shut. She also suppressed the swelling urge to chuck the piece of plastic and electronics to the wind. Again, that Ichimonji guy wasn't at his office. If he was a good photographer as he said he was, then shouldn't he have been back by now? He could have at least texted!
After pocketting her phone, Ruriko leaned on the railing. Her hands rubbed over the roughened skin and a few wrinkles on her face. "Come on, Ruriko. Hold it together," she told herself.
Even then, she couldn't hide her anxiety. Not when the green tips of the distant mountains peeked over the city's vast expanse and into Ruriko's peripheral visions. The same mountains where those scientists had supposedly disappeared.
"Don't worry, Ruriko. I'll be back before you know it," her father had said before he left home.
That had been ten days ago.
For ten days, her father had been gone. Along with those other scientists who went with him for some conference, as her father had explained. Ruriko hired that photographer to find any clues of their whereabouts. She hoped for success where the police failed. Now, he was missing! And not a word from anyone about them–
"Ruriko!" she heard a colleague say. Ruriko whirled to the man who popped his head onto the balcony. "You have to come inside! There's some news!"
'Some news' was nothing new. Being said so urgently made Ruriko's reporter instincts kick in. After she pocketed her phone and dragged her feet back inside, the young woman gaped. Every computer, tv, and laptop blared from the sudden news report, each showing a young man. His studious looks clear through his dirtied face and long, dark hair.
It may have been once, but Ruriko saw him when she last saw her father.
"... Takeshi Hongo has reappeared since Dr. Midorikawa and several other scientists disappeared almost two weeks ago in the mountains. He was found walking into the city, where he asked someone to telephone the police. He is currently there to relay his version of events that transpired..."
Ruriko was out the door before the newscast finished.
Ruriko's car came to a sudden halt after honking and speeding its way through traffic. She probably ignored a few red lights, but her attention was on the tiny corner housing a police station. Given its close proximity to where the man had been sighted, it was Ruriko's first guess. Sadly, several officers crowded around in a line to block more reporters who had the same guess as Ruriko's.
Cursing herself in the next few minutes, Ruriko finally found a parking spot several yards away. Cursing for another few minutes, she ran to the crowded gathering of reporters. So many of them, and–
Ruriko yelped at a car screeching to a stop in front of her. "Oi, be careful!" said the driver.
She was about to respond when she got a better look at the driver's face. "Excuse me!" Ruriko called out to him before the car drove off.
Thankfully, the car came to a stop for Ruriko to catch up. The driver popped his head out of the car, light wrinkles touching his brow along with the sides of gray on his hair. They were meager details, but they popped out in Ruriko's memory from among the many other faces asked about the missing persons. Especially when other reporters had asked this man about Hongo Takeshi.
"Tobei Tachibana, yes?" Ruriko asked, grabbing her pen and pad from her purse.
The driver nodded. "Are you with the reporters here?"
"Yes. Ruriko Midorikawa from Ore Magazine. Are you here to pick up Hongo Takeshi?"
"Midorikawa? Then–" Tachibana stopped and said, "Uh, yes. Hongo just called for me to pick him up. If you'll excuse me, I have to find a parking spot."
"Wait! I just have a few questions and–!"
"Sorry, miss, but I just don't know. You'll have to wait with everyone else. Now, excuse me!"
Tachibana drove off, forcing Ruriko back and drowning away any words. Ruriko held back any thought of chasing after him. However close Tachibana could have been to this case, her main focus was behind a line of police and thick walls. It would be a matter of time before he came out.
So, Ruriko waited with everyone else outside the police station. She kept to herself among the crowds, often noting she was the only one from her company present. Maybe, she was the first to leave as soon as she heard the news. She was also among the first to notice some figures leaving the police station.
The minute Ruriko almost got to the line of policemen, every other reporter swarmed around and moved her to the back. Not long afterward, the crowd parted and pushed her aside to hear sounds like "Excuse me!" and "Can you just…?" from the front. The hintest of a dark head of hair moved, guided by men in police caps. The sight made Ruriko zip through the other reporters, if only to find that head. And she did after coming to the front.
Out of everything that happened in less than an hour, the tall young man made Ruriko's heart stop. Bits of mud and leaves covered his once-shaven face. His hair, just as messy, fell atop broad shoulders covered in a loose shirt. Even then and even if she had seen the man only a few times beforehand, Ruriko recognized him.
Takeshi Hongo. Her father's personal assistant at the nearby university.
Ruriko quickly found her voice among the others, including the police trying to keep her away. "Excuse me! Ruriko Midorikawa, Ore Magazine! Hongo-san, would you know what happened to the other scientists who went missing!"
Instead of ignoring her as she initially thought, Hongo turned to her. His eyes. God, his eyes. They were like her father's after her mother died.
"Midori… kawa?" Hongo said with a rasp that once grasped her father's for many months.
"Yes! Can you please give a few words on what happened?" Ruriko asked and hoped Hongo would answer.
Yet, Hongo's sunken-in brown orbs turned away with the rest of him. "Wait!" Ruriko called, only for the other voices to raise over hers. She hadn't noticed they kept silent when she was talking. "I just want to know about my father! Do you know when you last saw him?"
Hongo's silence answered her. Ruriko squeezed through the front line of reporters to chase after him. Only the policemen stood in her way. "Ma'am, please give some space–" one said but Ruriko didn't pay attention to him.
"Please, tell me you know what happened to him!"
Tachibana's car, the same one that almost hit Ruriko, drove up in front of the station. Hongo stood in front of it, even after one policeman opened the door for him. His back turned to Ruriko and the reporters crowding behind her, Hongo only said, "I… I'm sorry."
With the police holding Ruriko and everyone else back, the car drowned her pleas and carried away the only known clue to finding her father.
"So, he did all of this."
The comment was one of keen observation and interest rather than annoyance. The simpleton before the commenter, dressed in black from head to toe, shook with his voice. "Y-Yes, sir. A-as you can see, the specimen's strength proved to be very successful. Several other rooms containing blueprints on the modification process have been… damaged, to say the least. Many of the computers may not be salvageable after the events from two nights ago."
Standing outside the heart of the destruction, outside the very surgery room his so-called greatest experiment escaped from, the commenter turned. His eyes almost glared dagger so sharp, they could make the goon before him turn blood red like his long cape. The loss of any data, especially one of such importance, was too important to lose.
"B-b-but w-we have managed to recover the backup files!" the black-clad goon said quickly. Shaking with every word, he held out a digitized tablet for proof.
The commenter's hand left his cape to grab the tablet. "Is this all you can recover?" he asked after a quick study of the finding on the tiny screen.
"Y-yes, sir…"
"Hmm, you have done well."
With that, the goon was dismissed. He did step around the tiny pieces of flesh, the remains of his predecessor responsible for the entire base. The commenter didn't need to inflict the same punishment on the puny man, so he focused on the tablet.
In doing so, he trailed down the long hall of the ruined base. He had already seen the extent of the devastation. He almost felt pride when he realized his own work had been the cause behind it. Such power would be a tremendous help if he put it to good use.
Only if he had it, that is.
Coming across the long corridor of cells, he stopped. Other goons in black popped into his view, as did the very subjects they had captured over the course of several days. He ignored the moans and cries of the latter group. "You!" he called out to one from the former. The goon approached and accepted the tablet. "Here is the salvaged data. Upload into our database, and move these subjects to the new base for processing."
When one goon left, two more approached while towing a third body, dressed in simple and dirty clothes. "Sir, this is the one we were informed of. What are your orders for this one?" one of the two goons asked.
The commenter eyed the man before him. This newcomer had turned up at the base's very doorstep, sputtering like a shell-shocked fool. The newcomer knelt before him from the drugs injected into him. Young and fit, he would no doubt be a good asset.
"Prepare him for the table. He may be fit enough to survive the process."
With the order given, the man was taken away. The commenter turned to face the only one who didn't look the slightest bit human. Then again, no one would look human with spider-like eyes and legs on their head.
The commenter, or rather commander of everyone involved, held out the tablet. He had already gone through the files to select a particular one. "This is your new target," he ordered. "You will be given a squad of troopers to apprehend him by any means. If that means bringing him in pieces, then do so. And make sure they are large pieces. I do not want to lose such a valuable asset."
The monster bowed, but the commander gripped his slender shoulder tightly. It, or his tone, were not out of comfort. "Do not feel so proud. This is to make up for your mistake. Do not make another one."
"... Yes, Doctor Shinigami," the spider-man said rather meekly.
Letting go, Shinigami turned to leave. Everything else fell away as he walked to the base's opened entrance. Natural light fell on the tablet's glass, well as the digital image of a young man on it.
"Takeshi Hongo. Let's see how you will react," Shinigami said with a smile.
AN: Man, it has been a while since I updated this story! Fortunately for any interested readers, it is not dead (yet). Real life sadly had been taking its toll on me for some time, and I had a hard time trying to finish chapter 3 (my plan was to finish it then upload chapter 2). Hopefully, there won't be such as much of a long wait for the chapter 3 (which is done, I just want to finish chapter 4 first to have it on hand).
In any case, I do hope you like this chapter even if there is no action in it. Until next time, take care.
Raika out.