TACO Run
Chapter 24
Naeko adjusted her cap as she trotted down the train station's stairs to the security room. There'd been a call regarding a reported groping, and she and Uehara had been the closest officers, so they'd both taken the call.
Uehara had already reported his arrival, but Naeko wasn't just going to leave it be. Chances were that station security was all men, and what girl would want to be surrounded by men after getting assaulted? And the guys probably wouldn't even get what the problem was. Ugh, men were clueless.
Well, no. Kazonobu wasn't bad. And his friend Takagi was probably decent too, since Miwako thought he was worth dating. And Inspector Megure was always good at handling victims and their trauma. But most guys, Naeko had found, were completely clueless when it came to how to handle women in distress. And a lot of them couldn't even understand when they were the actual problem!
Rapping her knuckles against the door, Naeko waited for it to open. "Officer Mīke Naeko, reporting!" she chirped, and ducked inside.
Wow, but the atmosphere was tense in here. Or maybe that was the air conditioning, because brr.
Okay, Naeko, time to take stock. One security officer holding the door for her. Uehara and another officer sitting at a table with two people, one of which was obviously the victim and the other…
Not the perpetrator, if she had her guess. Not if he was sitting on the same side of the table as the victim. Or if he was, she and Uehara were going to have words.
Naeko walked briskly that way, head high despite the eyes all abruptly on her—and wow but the guy sitting next to the victim had an intense gaze—and stopped next to the victim, crouching next to her and giving her a reassuring smile. "Hi there," she said. "I'm Officer Mīke. Sorry it took me a little longer to get here. You mind telling me what happened?"
The girl—god, she couldn't be older than sixteen!—visibly relaxed when she realized there was another female present. "Um, I…"
Uehara cut in. "I've already taken statements," he said with a frown. "Surely you don't want to make the victim reiterate all of it again."
Naeko just looked at him. Considering procedure had required a reenactment of the assault until six years ago, she didn't think he was actually all that concerned about the victim's emotional turmoil. And even if he was, interrupting them like that was rude. "Of course. I'll read your notes in a moment, Officer Uehara." She turned back to the girl as Uehara quietly bristled at being dismissed so easily. "Sorry, we were interrupted. May I ask your name, miss?"
A brief, hesitant nod, fingers clutching at the edges of an oversized, fancy black coat. "Seidou Mikake, ma'am."
"Miss Seidou, then." Naeko patted her hand, and then looked up at the guy sitting next to her. "And you are?"
He was looking at his phone, was what he was. But the moment she spoke to him, he looked up at her again and then dipped his head in a little introductory bow, saying something in—well, that wasn't Japanese. Or English. Or French. Or… well, anything Naeko recognized.
"Um. You can use a talk-to-text translator," miss Seidou said hesitantly, looking down again. "That's what we've been doing so far."
"Thank you," Naeko said politely, as Uehara let air huff out through his nose. The foreign guy—he was what Yumi would call 'scrummy'—said something else, and then held out his own phone for her to look at.
Hm… 'My apologies for the inconsideration, miss. From your attire, I deduce you are a guardswoman come to assist Mikake in her time of need?' Huh. Polite guy. Though there was a difference between security personnel, military personnel, and police, which he either didn't grasp or the translator didn't cover properly. "That's exactly it, sir," she said politely. "May I have your name?"
He pulled the phone back to himself, stroking his chin as he read the translation. Once he'd answered, he turned it back to her. 'But of course! As I told these guardsmen here, I am Cyrus Albright, professor of history at the Atlasdam Royal Academy. I was on my way to the local Academy to perform some research when I witnessed miss Mikake being assaulted in a most detestable manner, and felt it imperative that I intervene. Thankfully, she appears to have suffered no physical harm, but I am, unfortunately, not the most adept at comforting others, nor am I familiar with the local environs, and so we felt it best to consult the authorities on the matter.'
Okay, so he wasn't just polite, he had an actual brain in his head. And he was kind of posh-sounding, though that might be the translation again. It didn't seem to have a grasp of contractions, and used formal speech exclusively. "That was a good call," she assured him. "If we can find and apprehend the perpetrator, we can prevent him from doing this kind of thing again."
Uehara actually snorted at that, and when she turned a sharp look on him, folded his arms over his chest. "It's all a waste of time," he pointed out, which—honestly he wasn't entirely wrong, but he didn't have to be an utter ass about it, or say it right in front of them. "The chances of catching the guy in a crowded station like this is slim enough with security personnel on-scene at the time. He's long gone by now, and the victim doesn't even have any real idea of who he was. We'd all be better off forgetting about it and going about our days."
Naeko felt miss Seidou flinch at that, and was just about to tear into Uehara for his dismissive attitude and his refusal to even say miss Seidou's name, when the foreign guy spoke up in a tone that managed to be polar-sea frigid despite the language barrier.
He held out the phone in Naeko's direction, but his eyes were very firmly fixed on Uehara.
'My apologies. I was under the impression that protecting this land's citizens was your job—was I perhaps mistaken?' The look on the foreigner's face was somehow… well. It was both innocent, and not innocent at all. He gripped his chin between thumb and forefinger, eyes focused on Uehara's face in a way that was frankly unnerving. 'Or is there some other duty of more immediate import than assisting a girl who has been the victim of a most reprehensible assault?'
Naeko felt her mouth curve up in a smile, and thoroughly enjoyed the look on Uehara's face when she read that aloud. He looked like someone trying to swallow a lemon whole. "Oh, no, you're right," she assured the foreigner sincerely, "that's why we're here. Or at least, that's why I'm here. Maybe Officer Uehara misheard the call, though?"
Ooh, look at the pretty red flush!
Embarrassed or not, though, Uehara couldn't exactly protest what she'd said. Not right now, anyway. He was only her senior in the force by like, a month, anyway, even if he was a lot older, so she doubted she'd get an actual reprimand for making him look like an idiot. Especially because if he tried to report it, she knew Inspector Megure would have her back once he heard the details.
She supposed she ought to let him at least attempt to save face, and retreat without making more of an ass of himself. "Officer Uehara, since you seem to consider this a waste of your time, why don't you go make yourself useful elsewhere? I'm sure I can handle this just fine, especially if you leave me your notes."
After a little more blustering, Uehara did just that, and Naeko suppressed a sigh of relief once he was gone. Moving over to the seat he'd been occupying previously—and pretending not to see one of the security personnel cast a warding-off sign after Uehara's retreating back—she sat down and smiled at miss Seidou and Professor Albright. "Thank you for your patience," she said politely. "Do you mind if I take a few minutes to read over Officer Uehara's notes? Or would you prefer to tell me what happened yourselves?"
Miss Seidou nibbled her lip, glancing over towards the professor, who finished reading the translation on his phone and then turned to her with a concerned expression, giving his own reply.
'If I may, it might be most efficient if you were to obtain the translation function for yourself first, so that we might communicate more effectively without a need to pass mine or Mikake's devices around between ourselves.'
Oh, yeah, that did make sense. So Naeko got right to work on that, nodding to show him that she'd understood.
'And if I may further speculate, miss… Mīke, I believe it was pronounced?'
"That's right," Naeko agreed, once she found a decent translator app and got it set up. "Mīke Naeko." Huh. According to the 'detect language' function, he was speaking Latin. Weird.
'Thank you. As I was saying, I would hypothesize that Mikake would feel more comfortable speaking to you of such matters privately, if she does wish to reiterate them. Not to disparage your compatriot, but his attitude regarding the severity of the situation left much to be desired, and while I do not doubt his notes to be accurate according to his own perspective, I do not have the greatest of confidence as to their objectively factual nature, or their particular usefulness.'
Oh. Yeah, she could see why he'd worry about that. "Contrary to how he handled everything here today, Officer Uehara is actually a decent policeman for the most part," Naeko admitted. "His notes should be accurate, if miss Seidou doesn't feel comfortable rehashing everything all over again." She looked back to the girl in question. "The professor has a good point, miss. Would you like to speak to me privately? Or would you prefer I just read Officer Uehara's notes?" Thankfully, from what she'd seen and heard so far, it had only been a groping, so there wasn't any need for a doctor's visit or a rape kit, but it still would have been horribly traumatic for the girl, and she could totally understand her not wanting to talk about it again.
Miss Seidou shifted, glancing up at her, and then over at the professor, and then at the security personnel—who were both men, like Naeko had guessed—and then looked down again, hugging herself. "I… I want to go home," she said quietly. "I don't want to talk about it."
"That's fine, then," Naeko assured her. "I'll read over Officer Uehara's notes, and if Professor Albright is willing to give his own testimony, I'll be more than happy for the elaboration. Is there anything we can get you in the meantime? Water, a snack, a blanket?" She waved a hand for the security guy sitting with them, and he stood to go fetch those without waiting for confirmation. Miss Seidou seemed very unsure, and hesitant to ask for much of anything, so it was best to make it plain she wasn't an imposition.
It wasn't uncommon, among victims of train gropers. That was the kind of person who creeps targeted, after all—people who were unlikely to cause a scene regardless of what was done to them. Or people who could be intimidated into remaining silent or retracting their accusations, people who wouldn't press charges.
Thankfully, it looked like the security guys were decent people, and had treated miss Seidou with respect and consideration as best they could with Uehara in charge. And they were properly supplied in their little office, too, because it took maybe a minute for the security guy assisting them to fetch a can of hot corn soup, a shock blanket, and a bottle of water from the tiny break-room-and-kitchenette they had going on. In the meantime, after some polite pleasantries, Naeko got to work reading through Uehara's notes.
As she'd told the professor, Uehara was actually a decent cop, other than his dismissive attitude today. His notes were thorough, concise, and neatly-written, containing just enough detail to make it clear that he'd asked all the right questions and gotten clear answers, even if he probably hadn't been particularly pleasant about it.
The report left Naeko conflicted. On the one hand, she wanted to find the perp and force-feed him his own penis. On the other, she wanted to wrap miss Seidou in fluffy blankets and get her a mug of cocoa and personally drive her home.
Well, the shock blanket and hot corn soup would have to do, and she could drive her home later, after all of this was handled. As for feeding the perp his own penis… that'd probably count as excessive force, if not actual assault. Unfortunately.
"So I'm assuming that you want to press charges, miss Seidou?" she said as soon as she was done reading the notes. "I know it's hard, and it might feel like putting people out, but it's not an imposition for us to help put this creep away. As the professor said," she gave him a smile, which he returned brightly, "it is literally our job."
Miss Seidou bit her lip again—she did look a lot better for having hot soup in her—but nodded slowly. "I… I want to forget it ever happened, but… but if I don't at least try, then all of this would've been pointless and… and everyone would've gone to all this trouble for nothing."
At that, Naeko saw Professor Albright give her a puzzled frown.
'My dear, it has been no trouble at all,' he said. 'Assisting others in distress is only logical, after all. Cooperation and compassion are the bases behind all human society—even should one look back to the days of the hunter-gatherer tribes, one will find that there is clear evidence of even the most terribly disabled individuals being cared for throughout their days. In fact, many historians such as myself consider finding evidence of medical care—specifically a healed femur—to be the truest evidence of civilization. After all, such long-term care requires resources which cannot, generally speaking, be replaced or compensated for by an individual so badly injured in a primitive society, meaning that altruism and compassion, or at the very least enlightened self-interest, are absolutely necessary for such to have occurred—'
When he paused for breath, Naeko cleared her throat politely. "Thank you, Professor," she said. "I'm sure miss Seidou appreciates the history lesson. But we have more immediate concerns at the moment."
Miss Seidou nodded hesitant agreement as the professor read the translation.
'Ah, of course! My apologies.' A self-effacing little laugh. 'I do have a tendency to talk one's ear off.' He sat back a bit in his chair, crossing one leg over the other in a casually genteel pose. 'As Mikake is uncomfortable relating her recent experiences, please ask me any questions you like, and I shall do my best to answer.'
Naeko nodded gratefully. "Now, these notes say that miss Seidou didn't actually get a good look at her assaulter, but you did." It was close to the end of the notes, actually, so she was pretty sure that that was what they'd been discussing when she'd arrived. "Would you mind giving me a description?"
'But of course.'
What followed was an amazingly detailed and incisive description of the perp, which unfortunately didn't help at all despite its clarity, because it boiled down to 'normal thirty-something salaryman with no distinguishing marks or outward evidence of what his Quirk might be'. Which, in turn, meant there was no practical way to track him down…
Wait.
Straightening up in her chair, Naeko looked over at miss Seidou again. "That's not your coat, is it, miss?" It was too big, for one thing, and for another it didn't match what she was wearing at all. Honestly, it looked more like a cosplay wizard's cloak than anything else, except it had sleeves, and considering that, she had a feeling she knew exactly who it belonged to.
Miss Seidou shook her head, tugging the edges of the cloak closer around herself. "Mister… um, Professor Albright lent it to me." She glanced at him guiltily out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry; I ruined it…"
Through involuntary Quirk reaction, according to Uehara's notes. And he'd probably scolded her for that, despite it being damn impressive that the girl had managed to wait until she was off the train to have her little breakdown, preventing what could probably have been some pretty gruesome injuries. As it was, only her own clothes and Professor Albright's coat had been damaged.
And Professor Albright waved that damage off easily. 'Think nothing of it, my dear. Clothing can be repaired or replaced as necessary—it has served an admirable purpose in providing you with warmth and a sense of security, and that is what matters.'
Too right. Naeko nodded her approval, and stood back up. "I think I have an idea for how we might find the perpetrator," she said encouragingly. "If you'll come with me?"
They followed, hesitantly on miss Seidou's part, and curiously on the professor's. Naoko took them over to the security screens, and asked for permission to review some of the video from earlier. The security guy in charge of the monitors was more than willing to help out, grinning as he stated that creeps like that weren't worth their train passes. A comment that seemed to make miss Seidou feel a bit better.
Finding video of Professor Albright and miss Seidou leaving their train was as simple as asking which train they'd arrived on, and then having the security guy look up the appropriate feed. Professor Albright seemed fascinated by the whole process, watching everything with a look of intense wonder and murmuring under his breath the whole time, though it didn't sound the same and the phone's translation app didn't seem to recognize what he said.
"Professor?" Naeko asked, drawing his attention away from the screens. "Do you think you can identify the perpetrator from any of these videos?" The cameras were meant to capture large areas, and thus were set at a high angle. The flashy coat-robe-thing he'd lent miss Seidou stood out enough to be easily identified, but the perp's clothes might not.
The professor hummed softly through his nose, reading that, and pinched his chin between thumb and forefinger as he peered back at the screens. Dark grey eyes narrowed, and he reached forward to almost-tap one of the screens, murmuring something else the phone didn't quite catch, but which Naeko guessed was a request to rewind and replay the footage of them leaving the train again.
Sharing a look with the security guy, Naeko nodded, and they replayed that camera's appropriate footage. It was one of the better angles, honestly, with a passable view of the passengers' faces, and the professor studied it intensely as the security guy—his nametag said Yasuda—played it back again at three-quarter speed.
"Aha!" The bright exclamation was accompanied by a slender finger leaping upright, and Yasuda froze the video as the professor pointed an indicative finger at the screen. 'This individual, miss,' he said confidently.
"You're sure?" The man he indicated matched his earlier description, sure, but he was still very ordinary.
'Completely certain, miss,' he nodded affirmatively. 'Not only do I recognize his features, but observing those other individuals exiting alongside us, he is the only one wearing such particularly drab clothing, or having such a particularly unremarkable appearance.' He then pointed out how the other two salarymen in the footage were wearing blue and brown suits, rather than grey, and that both of them had obvious Quirks. 'Furthermore, based upon the timing of his exit, one can extrapolate his relative position within the carriage's confines. While this is of course merely hypothesis, it does strongly suggest his close proximity to both myself and Mikake in the moments before the train's arrival at the station.'
Wow, that was actually a very compelling argument. "In that case, I think we might be able to track him down." It took a little while, switching between camera feeds based on Yasuda's understanding of the station's layout, but they managed to track the apparent perp through two separate turnstiles—reconfirming his identity both times with Professor Albright's help—and identify the next train he'd boarded. It might take a few days to start an official investigation and go through all of the relevant records, but they should be able to compare the information on the train passes scanned in the turnstiles with the timestamps on the security footage, and confirm his identity. Even if the investigation didn't end with a conviction—and she gently warned miss Seidou and the professor that it might not, even with his witness testimony—they would at the very least be able to supply the train company with his information, allowing them to potentially blacklist him.
Professor Albright also admitted that he likely wouldn't be around long enough to give a testimony in person, should 'the miscreant' be brought to trial—and he had a lot of questions about the process—as he hoped to complete his research and return home sooner rather than later. However, he was willing to sign a legal affidavit and formal report about his observations and positive identification of the perp, which was a good deal better than nothing.
After having done so—and either his handwriting was terrible, or he wasn't using the English alphabet, because Naeko couldn't read his signature—he asked if Naeko would be willing to escort miss Seidou home, 'as she is still in a vulnerable state, her clothing in disarray, and surely her parents need to be informed of today's happenings. Er, you do still have parents, do you not, Mikake?' That last question he asked with a sudden hesitance, as if only just realizing he'd made a potentially thoughtless assumption. It was a little surprising that he wouldn't know, since he'd been calling her by her given name, like they'd known each other for years or he was an old family friend… except he was foreign, so he probably didn't realize how over-familiar that was.
Miss Seidou nodded diffidently, and told him that her mother would probably be at home right now—she'd been on her way to her favorite arcade when she'd been assaulted—and apologized for taking up so much of his time with everything, and destroying his coat.
But when she tried to return the coat, he shook his head and insisted she keep it. 'I am afraid I've none of the skills needed to repair it. Furthermore, while it is damaged, its greater volume and superior materials mean that it is less damaged than your own clothing, and thus of more use to you under these circumstances than it would be to me.' A faintly wry smile. 'The rain was not too fierce when I first entered the train; hopefully it will remain light enough that my person and possessions will remain unscathed until I return to my current lodgings.'
"You don't have an umbrella?" The coat did have a hood, so she supposed he wouldn't have needed one. Still, he didn't have the coat anymore, and that book he was toting around looked old and potentially valuable. "Mister Yasuda, do you have any spares here?"
"Sure. There are always some left behind that aren't claimed from the lost-and-found within the time limit." He went and dug through a bin in one corner, pulling out an old-fashioned umbrella with a curved handle. "Here we go, Professor."
The professor took it, seeming briefly puzzled, before understanding and interest lit his dark grey eyes brightly, and he managed to clumsily open and close the umbrella several times, exclaiming quietly to himself in whatever not-Latin language it was he spoke. Maybe Dutch? Apparently, he'd never seen a manual-open umbrella before, which would seem ridiculous, except he was very obviously some kind of wealthy and eccentric, so maybe he genuinely hadn't.
After that, it was just a matter of making sure they had all the appropriate arrangements made, and calling miss Seidou's mother to let her know what had happened and that they'd be bringing her home shortly.
That was… not a fun conversation, and it wasn't made any better by Professor Albright looking back and forth between her and his phone constantly, being really obvious about listening in through the translation app.
Once she was done, though, she hung up and thanked everyone for their time, and prepared to walk miss Seidou to her car. Professor Albright accompanied them up out of the station, and bade his own farewells to them both once miss Seidou was properly bundled into the car. Yasuda had given Professor Albright one of the station's cheap nylon souvenir bags to hold his books—he'd had another one stuffed down the front of his vest for some reason—and the shards of brass miss Seidou had shed some time earlier, which he claimed were fascinating and 'quite lovely in appearance'.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble," miss Seidou said one more time once she was settled, tugging the tattered coat closed over her chest again.
'My dear, I have said there is no need to apologize,' the professor said, tone kind despite the language barrier. 'Perhaps, rather than doing so, there is something else you might say instead?'
Miss Seidou hugged herself, head ducked shyly, and bit her lip. And then managed to look up with a weak, watery smile. "Thank you."
A beaming smile. 'Well done.' Tucking his phone into an elaborately embroidered leather pouch at his hip, he gave a sweeping bow, lifted the umbrella over his head, and strode confidently away.
A/N: Mikake means 'appearance', but is written using the kanji for 'what you see' and 'shard/chip'. Her surname, Seidou, means 'bronze'.
A/N: The reason the police don't immediately report Cyrus' presence to Naomasa is that… frankly, most of them have no clue he's important. Because of the secrecy involved in Olberic's situation, Naomasa couldn't put out actual APBs on the other guys, especially considering that Naomasa is a detective specializing in Quirk-related crimes, so he'd be stepping well outside his normal jurisdiction. Not to mention that while Olberic's descriptions were accurate, they're not really enough to identify the guys on sight.