Zi Yang and Kanan arrived at the Norichurin Bank a few minutes later. They received a call from a bystander that another robbery happened a few minutes ago at the bank, but at that moment, they were busy searching for Jeff in other places. They didn't manage to find him, so they decided to concentrate on this robbery case first.
"I'm very sure Jeff was involved in this one." Zi Yang told Kanan. They went to the bank-tellers and asked them for details about the robbery. They told the two inspectors that three women in black outfits were fighting the robbers. Zi Yang was surprised. He couldn't believe it.
He made sure to go to every single bank-teller and they all confirmed that no man was ever seen beating the robbers up. He was so puzzled he thought he was dreaming.
"Your definite theory has been proven wrong, Mis~ter~Huang." Kanan teased him.
"Don't make fun of me, Kanan." He crossed his arms while she laughed at him. He then walked to a woman who had her statement written down by a police officer. He let Zi Yang talk to her.
"Hello, you must be Misaki, the person who called us." Zi Yang shook her hand, "I am Inspector Huang. May you give me a recount so that I could piece the case together?"
Misaki explained that she was doing some work in her room when she heard lots of noise coming from the bank, which was situated opposite her housing apartment. She was okay with it at first because she thought it was construction work. However, the moment she heard gunshots and glasses breaking, she looked down and saw the robbers getting shot. She quickly called the police at that point.
Zi Yang nodded his head and thanked her for her side of the story. Afterwards, he went to Kanan, where she was discussing the current state of the bank with the officers.
"...insurance should cover them." Kanan was talking, "Make sure to ask for their statement, and then we'll compile all of it at the station." The officers nodded their heads and went to work.
"Where's Kotori?" Zi Yang asked her.
"Good question." She replied, "The officers told me she was in the toilet a few minutes ago, and hasn't come out ever since."
"What's she doing in there for so long?" He asked, "Is she laying eggs?"
"We'll have to ask her when she comes..." As Kanan was about to finish her sentence, Kotori came out of the toilet. Her eyes looked a bit puffy.
"Kotori?" Kanan looked at her with concern, "Are you okay? You looked like you just cried in the toilet."
"I'm fine." Kotori forced a smile on her face, "Don't worry about me."
"Don't worry about you?" Zi Yang gave a half-suppressed laugh, "These days you've been acting like a depressed person like your dog died or something. You seemed so preoccupied. Don't even get me started on your dear partner Umi Sonoda. I don't know where the fuck she has been. Did she decide to work for NASA now and fly to outer space?"
"Can you stop being sarcastic?" Kanan glared at him, which was enough to keep his mouth shut. She walked to Kotori and patted her shoulder.
"You might be facing some unfortunate stuff and you don't want to tell us, I understand." She told Kotori, "How about this? Take a break for a few days, and come back when you're ready."
"But..."
"No buts." Kanan said, "About Umi, we'll find her another time. For now, take a rest, free your mind, and then come back to work. We'll take over the rest from here."
"Thank you, Madam." Kotori bowed before walking off. Zi Yang was speechless. He didn't understand why his partner would let Kotori off.
"Kanan, why the hell on Earth did you let her go home?" He questioned angrily, "You know we need her to find that stupid guy and the other three women who were involved in the robberies. We still have seven unanswered murder cases we need to find answers to! You know the less manpower we have, the longer we'll take to finish these!"
"Oh yeah, and did you see how Kotori was these past few days?" Kanan retorted, "Even if we have her stay, she'd be distracted by whatever shit she's thinking about. That would do us no damn good, so I let her go and rest so that she could think better after that. It's not like we're disabled without her. So how about you just trust my instincts this time, and follow my way of doing stuff?" She then walked away.
"My ways are always good." Zi Yang crossed his arms, "What are you talking about?" She ignored him however, and talked to the other officers.
"Pfft." Zi Yang scoffed, "What's this? All the women are getting angry at me. Are they having their period now? Jeez. What a troublesome couple and an overprotective guardian."
In Regis's office, he allowed the three of them to sit on the sofa while he closed the door and sat at his desk. Behind him was a very Starry Night painting by the one and only Vincent van Gogh. He took out a packet of potato chips and offered some of it to them, but they declined politely.
"Aww, this is the limited edition sour onion and cheese flavoured chips." He said, "You girls are missing out on something so god damn delicious." He grabbed a bunch of chips before closing the packet and keeping it in the drawer.
"I am about to tell you my tale with the crime syndicate." He said to them, "An incident in my life I will never forget. Make no mistake that this is the most ruthless crime syndicate in this country. They have some of the most cold-hearted yakuza you have ever seen."
He slowly breathed in and out before talking, "Half a decade ago, me and my friends wanted to take down the crime syndicate like you women do. Even when it seemed impossible, we wanted to seek justice for the innocent victims who had their lives taken away. Being able to stop a lot of illegal operations by the crime syndicates and saving so many people made us really feel like heroes. Oh man, did it make us feel so satisfied and proud of ourselves. Sadly, something bad happened afterwards. Something that changed my life forever." He then stopped talking and looked at the trio.
"Actually, why are you still wearing the ski masks?" He questioned, "You do know no one else could see you here except me, right? Besides, your face would sweat a lot, and it is harder to breathe in it. Why not save yourself the trouble and remove it?" The women agreed with what he was saying and removed the masks.
"Anyways, as I was saying, something bad happened." He uttered, "On that day that we were stopping a robbery, the yakuza from the crime syndicate murdered my friends in cold blood, and they captured me." As soon as he said that, it started raining and the thunder roared loudly.
"That just got a little more dramatic." Maki commented. Regis just ignored her and went on with his story.
"They tortured me for numerous days and nights nonstop. They tied me to an electric chair and electrocuted me. They punched and kicked me continuously for hours. At one point, they whipped me up with a whip so hard I couldn't walk at all and my body was just in so much pain.
"Finally, after a few days of physical and mental suffering, their boss decided to let me go on one condition. He wanted me to keep mum about this whole situation, and not to stop their operations ever again. I agreed to it immediately, and I was let off. I cannot afford to offend them again, or I'll get killed for real. I decided to work hard for my own life, and that's where I am today."
"Are those yakuza really that strong and powerful?" Umi asked.
Regis nodded his head, "Not just those yakuza, it's the whole crime syndicate. I also heard their boss could fight really well. He once went against a whole gang of twenty members, and he defeated them all. Here's a piece of advice: never try to stop them on what they're doing. You'll be turned into dust before you can say 'help'."
"But what they're doing is unlawful!" Maki reasoned, "We can't just let them do whatever they want or as they please! Because of them, innocent lives were taken away, and they still are up to this day!"
"You three are easily outnumbered by them." He replied, "Even if you and I want to stop them, we literally can't. As unlawful as it seems, unless you want to offend the whole crime syndicate and have them put you in your grave, I suggest you stay out of this. If I were you, I'd just walk away now. Let the police do their job. They're more experienced than you."
"You're telling us to leave it to the police?" Eli glared at him, "They can't even do anything. It's useless to depend on them. We'll all die. I do not care whether the crime syndicate is dangerous, nor do I give a shit if the boss could go against a number of people."
She then stood up in anger. With an exasperated look on her face, she slammed the table with her fist in front of her each time she said the word 'we', "We can't let any more lives be lost for nothing. We won't just stand back and watch people die because of the evil deeds the yakuza have committed. We will bring this crime syndicate down by hook or by crook." On the third time, she slammed the table with force, emitting a loud banging noise.
Eli cooled down for a while before speaking, "Now, excuse us, we gotta go. Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it."
"Alright." Regis straightened his blazer, "I'll call my chauffeur to drive you back. Just wait for him in the car park in the basement, and tell him the location later." Eli then left the office. Umi and Maki followed suit. Regis looked at them as they went off.
At the end of the day, Kanan drove back to her home. She changed into her home clothes before plopping herself onto her bed. She sure had a stressful day. On top of having the seven murder cases unsolved, the police still can't find the three women who were involved in the robberies. To add on to the pressure, Kanan has to keep a secret which she could never tell anyone, especially Zi Yang.
A few hours ago, Kanan was in her office, looking through the footage of the first robbery at Tusas Bank. She was trying to see if there were any small details she might have missed that could potentially lead her to the women who fought the robbers. She was sick and tired of everything going nowhere. She wanted to get somewhere. She was not going to work fourteen hours every day for nothing.
Upon closer inspection, she realized a bracelet dropped when one of the women was fighting Menemis. She paused the video and zoomed in to make sure she was not seeing things. There was indeed a bracelet on the floor. She was happy to have found a clue after so long. It was strange though. During the investigation, Kotori told her that nothing was found at the scene. Nonetheless, she took a photo of the footage.
Kanan drove to the shopping mall to get some clarification. After walking around for a while, she had finally found Kotori looking through a supermarket. Kanan decided to wait for her to come out before talking to her.
Ten minutes later, Kotori got out of the supermarket with no results. Even though eyewitnesses said they had seen Jeff there, she couldn't seem to find him. She then saw Kanan leaning on the wall outside.
"Madam." She bowed and greeted Kanan, "I'm sorry, Madam. I couldn't find Jeff anywhere in this mall. I..."
"That's not what I came here for today." Kanan interrupted her, "Kotori, do you remember the Tusas Bank robbery? We went through the footage in the bank, and we couldn't find anything from it. However, I've gone through it one more time." She then took out her phone and showed Kotori the picture she had taken earlier. Upon seeing that, Kotori gulped in fear as she started sweating on her forehead.
"This place is very familiar, right?" Kanan said, "It's the scene you were tasked to check. In the footage, there was obviously a bracelet there. However, you reported to me that there's nothing."
Kanan kept her phone and folded her arms while tapping her feet, "There's only two things. Either my eyes are playing tricks on me, or you're lying to me. Since I've replayed the video a lot of times and confirmed the bracelet is there, you must be hiding something. Out with it, Kotori."
"Well...I...I..." Kotori tried to find an excuse, "Some passerby must've kicked it away while they were walking past the alley..."
"YOU were the only person there at that scene while we were investigating." Kanan retorted, "After the robbery happened, no one except YOU was able to enter the scene. Stop lying to me, Kotori. Tell me the truth." Kotori looked down and kept quiet for a period of time.
"Not speaking up, right?" Kanan whipped her phone out, "I'm calling Zi Yang. He'll know how to deal with you, especially when you are hiding a piece of evidence from the crime scene and defending a criminal."
"No! You can't tell Sir about this!" She screamed, "Umi-chan...Umi-chan..."
"Wait, Umi?" Kanan was surprised, "What does Umi have to do with this whole fiasco?"
"The bracelet is hers." Kotori broke down into tears as she explained, "I don't want her to get caught. I can't bear to see her get arrested by the officers, especially if it's by me...I love her so much I...I will be devastated...if she goes to jail...My heart won't be able to take it...I want to spend the rest of my life with her...Please don't arrest her, Madam...Please..." Her voice cracked up at the last word before she started crying uncontrollably.
Seeing Kotori sobbing really hard, Kanan instantly felt bad for her. She knew how Kotori was feeling. If she was in Kotori's shoes, and her loved one was in trouble with the law, she would've done the same thing. Kanan decided to let it go and hugged Kotori while comforting her.
Back to the present, Kanan sighed as she stared at the ceiling. She already felt so stressed keeping this a secret. She also had to be aware of what she says to not let Zi Yang know any of this, and that made it more nerve-wracking for her. She buried her face in the pillow and groaned.