CHAPTER II
Somehow, the Hound manages to slip away from any suspecting crowd—using the lift and descending two floors down to run into the first available stairwell. He uses these methods back and forth before using the back door of the building when he's reached the ground floor. From there, he swiftly gets inside Kennel's car. He realised that while he was at a risk of dying, he found the experience thrilling. Which is why he won't tell Kennel what assassin took him long to get out of the hotel.
Then, they drove in silence. Well, one-sided silence; Kennel talked about the pictures he sent to his phone, and how he quickly deleted the files out of disgust. The Hound argues its potential relevancy to the case they're dealing with, but his partner also made a fair point that this type of case is out of their hands and into the police's, secretly to his chagrin.
The car parks affront their HQ, the Vanguard Detective Agency, located near the heart of the bustling and fashionable Shibuya ward in Tokyo. Shibuya in general is filled with young Tokyoites. Which is why it wouldn't come as a surprise if their base are also half-filled with young and aspiring private investigators, even if they've only just, or only have a high school diploma (the bare minimum requirement). The other half of the company are filled with people with experience; those that used to be in the police force or the military, sometimes at twice the age of their apprentice.
Being so late into the night, the Kennel and the Hound made quick work of entering the building, heading to their floor, and working together to make a report to their boss, just so they could go home early. It's good planning, considering he has other plans to attend to. Like his college courses. He sighs, hoping there would be an alloted time into working on his school assignments. Luckily, he only has a few amount of subjects to finish before it's smooth sailing into his fourth and final year, looking for a place to intern in. He was thinking this place is fitting enough to apply to in the HR department.
"Otsukaresan, Sasha, Deo." A womanly voice expresses her gratitude for their hard work as she addresses them by their true names—the Kennel's and the Hound's, respectively.
The Kennel—Sasha, was the first to greet her, switching from English to Japanese whenever he converses with someone else other than Deo. "Konbanwa, Boss Lady," followed by Deo's simple regard with a nickname that he gave her, "Gakki."
The woman sighs, arms folding. "That's Aragaki-san to you both. Your client's assistant called. A cancellation fee."
"Well, Aragaki-senpai, while I'm all about the money for my tuition, wouldn't that be a little detrimental to the Vanguard?" Deo retains his attention to his monitor, his typing unceasing. "They've just lost someone in the company and the first thing we do is take their money?"
Sasha added, just as busy. "It would also be an unfair term on our part if we do that, Aragaki-san."
Miss Aragaki smiled, ignoring the hint of sarcasm in how they addressed her. "Good. I'll send the word."
Deo grunts an agreement. He stops typing, just to give his report a once, then twice over. He's checked the grammar and punctuations, finding satisfaction in having little to no changes in it. For careful measures, he partakes in another reread, trying to see if he mentioned any encounters with anyone in the hotel floor in the report during his lonesome. He nods, finally turning away from his computer. "Sash, I'm done with mine. Anything I can help you with?"
"Another cup of coffee. Please, and thank you."
"Righty-o."
Deo lifts from his seat, grabbing the empty mug on Sasha's desk and heading into the kitchenette to refill the cup with coffee. In silent pursuit, Miss Aragaki approaches him with an unidentifiable stare. "...Gakki?" He finally acknowledges her.
"Are you okay?"
Deo's lips part, considering the question. But all that escapes him are, "Sure. Why?"
Miss Aragaki shakes her head. "Hearing it on the news is vastly different from truly being there. I'm considering you take a break from this for a bit." The news? They've already made news about it, huh? They sure are quick on the act. "It would also help the police if you stay still for now."
"Probably." He doesn't reject taking a break. It'll be put to good use in finishing his assignments, and consultations with his school's faculty. Maybe even finding out more about that costumed assassin. "What about Sasha?" Deo asked, pulling the filled mug of coffee in his hand, making his way back to Sasha's desk. Miss Aragaki tails him.
"Sasha?"
"Yes, Aragaki-san?" Sasha briefly glanced to their direction before flickering his eyes to his screen.
"You're on desk duty."
"Nice."
Deo's brows raised, eyeing Sasha. "Really?"
"I mean, it's been months, Deo. Literally. I'm stinking up my car the more times I sleep in there. Give her a break." And by her, he meant his car.
Deo chuckles and shakes his head. He proceeds to his desk to grab his belongings into a bag. He turns to the sight of his partner then stares at his superior. "I'm guessing that break begins now?"
"Happy break, Deo."
Deo awakes to his name being mentioned. He glances to his side, finding a classmate inquiring his tired state. He groans, "I'm fine, I'm fine." Not. "Just another all-nighter since I procrastinated." Nope!
Deo sneaked on his way to his dorm the night prior, vaulting over its fence and climbing the three-story building to get to his room on the second floor. By the time he got inside his room from the window, he passed out on the floor, and awoke to being close to late. Fuck shower, he just grabbed a fresh pair of clothes and took his bag with him to his first class.
His seat mate doubts his reason, but eventually gave up, reminding him that his health is his top priority. It shouldn't let it be second to his grades, but it's getting harder not to. Why is it that they have to carry the heavy load in the latter half of their college program? There's also their upcoming thesis defence at the end of the month, so he and his group will have to meet up and review their paper, who'll say what, and add some final bits of documentations.
His next class is in the afternoon, leaving Deo a lot of spare time to revisit last night's events. He packs his bag and leaves the campus on a bicycle, stopping by the building the runaway assassin leapt onto. He uses the lift, clicking the button to the highest floor, and exit the lift when he got there. He loiters in the hallway, soon finding a door that leads to the roof.
Initially, he was about to open the door, but is reminded of the fact that it might have an alarm set up. Mostly all buildings in the city do. Setting the alarm off will alert the security. He doesn't want that. Luckily, there's a window beside the door. It's enough space for a person to squeeze through. And he did squeeze through. The breeze hits him as he landed past the window, making him shiver.
The roof is dusty. It indicates what little care the security think of this surface. It is also cramped, by vents and fans and pipes. Only some sections of the roof is devoid of obstacles. He begins his inspection there, using the dust in his favour for any irregular smudges against the floor. He preps himself, black gloves on his hands once again like last night. He heads to the edge of the building facing the hotel he recalled the man jumped from. Fuck, that's far.
And there he found it, easy. The smudges on the edge of the roof and a few footprints that followed. They're dark brown in colour. Dried blood and dirt. He wasn't sure if the man was injured or not, but these are good samples to collect in a small plastic bag regardless. These might belong to the man, so who knows? It's almost a miracle that the police haven't gotten here ye-
Deo drops his entire weight to the ground. He hides behind the vent next his position and waits there. He pulls his phone out and opens his front camera before tilting his phone to the side, using it like a mirror aimed at the building the assassin leaped from. He zooms on his screen, it takes a few seconds for the camera to adjust, but he found an officer and... A teenage boy costumed in red, green, and yellow, walking into the room.
The boy turns to different directions as if to take in the surroundings. He closes in on the couch, where the body Deo found was no longer there. The teen turns to the officer, seemingly in a conversation. The boy walks by the toppled coffee table and stops by the broken window; that's where Deo tried to cover himself from when the assassin pulled out a gun, shot three times to break out, and land on this building he's hiding from now. The irony.
The boy turns to the building Deo is on, causing him to retreat his phone to his side. In a bit, he eases up, taking his phone to the corner of his hiding spot to know what they're up to next. The costumed boy turns to the officer again before leaving the room. That's the signal for Deo to make an escape.
He turns his phone off and hides it in his pocket, climbing to his feet until he heard a slight clink below him. He looks down, finding a small and half-flattened round object by his feet. He picks it up and examines it quickly—taking note of the bottom of the rim's carving that states 'FEDERAL 45 AUTO'. It's a .45 calibre casing. He places it in another small plastic bag, securing it in his pocket. It's a likelihood that there might be fingerprints on it.
He makes his way out of the roof through the window and crossed the hallway while taking off his gloves, to get to the elevators. The lift open to his floor for him to head back to the ground floor. He makes a quick getaway, leaving on a bicycle. Wanting to head back to his dorm, he does so by taking a different route to avoid suspicion.
Just in time for him to take his long awaited shower and head on to his thesis meeting anyways.
After his meeting, he wanders the cafeteria for lunch before sitting with his clique of unintentional philosophers, post-gossips of the week. The observers of school drama. He's unsure how he befriended them, or vice versa, but they're... okay.
Currently, they're discussing the student council's disagreement with the financial department about raising the students' tuition in the next school year. Most students are up and arms about it as well, but that's as far as the topic went. Discussions went on to gibberish topics that Deo's drowned out while eating his meal until one of them calls to him.
He looks up, they pointed over their shoulder to a police officer standing by a... A... Standing by a... Half... Robot? He arched a brow, looking to and fro the officer and the cyborg before removing himself from his seat and approaching them. Apparently, they were calling for him and is now being led to the campus entrance, where attention and murmurs follow. Not at him, but the cyborg.
When they reached the gates, the officer introduced himself while showing his ID, and then introduced the cyborg named... Cyborg. Okay. And I'm Private Eye. He muses to himself before bowing his head.
"So you're Deo Abdul?"
Shrugging, he smiled. "No need for English, officer. Anything I could help you both with?"
"Oh, I don't need it, but he does." The officer points to Cyborg, then continues in English. "Mr. Abdul, are you aware of last night's news?"
You mean, the CEO of the company, who's hotel management is considered five stars throughout the country and has received accolades for, hired our services to keep a company secret in the process of expanding their business to other countries while singling out on their employees that are in suspicion of being double agents for a different company?
"Straight to the point, eh? I mean, that's the only news last night, so... Yeah." Deo scratched the back of his head, glancing down towards the pavement.
"And after crossing out unassuming employees in the list of suspects, interviewing the others ones left on the list, we've uncovered you and your agency's connection to the assistant of the victim."
List of suspects... Am I one of them? "Victims." Deo eyes the officer, who nods at the correction.
"Then I take it you were there with the assistant when they saw the... Scenery."
Scenery. Though inappropriate, he chuckled. "Yes."
"What did they hire you for?"
"The agency? Security. As for myself, surveillance."
"You sound like they're not your team." For the first time, he hears Cyborg's voice. He thought it would sound more robotic, but maybe not.
Deo turns his head to him and smiled. "They aren't. Because I only do this part-time. I'm not entirely a part of the agency. But since I'm good in the field, they pay for my tuition in return for more of my skills. Oh, but don't tell my school, please? They think I'm just doing desk jobs." He chuckles again.
"Sick."
The officer interrupts. "Besides the assistant, there was another person in the elevator with you. Mr. Kakihara?" He looked at Deo questioningly.
"That's his name, yeah."
"He said you told him to call the police and stepped out of the elevator to secure the crime scene." Oh, I think I know where this is going. "But when the officers came up to the floor, you weren't found anywhere. Where did you go? And why did you allow yourself to step inside of the crime scene?"
"Officer," Deo begins, "shouldn't this be taken into the interrogation room? I wouldn't mind indulging you with more answers though, but this seems to be an inappropriate location to do your interview." He shifts in place, eyeing the campus over his shoulder.
The officer eases then apologised. "We should do this at a later date and appropriate place soon."
Deo agrees, on one condition. "How about next week, officer? Months of surveillance and I've yet to catch up with my courses. I'll make time for it in my schedule for the sake of the case." Plus, I don't want to attend the school assembly next week.
"Next week, then." The officer breaks into a polite smile before a bow with his head. Cyborg does the same, mouthing a Nice to meet you, man! to him before tailing the officer to their car, leaving.
Friendliness drops from Deo's attitude, staring at the shrinking car before heading back inside the school. He needs to get his bag and get back to his dorm after school. He's yet to examine the samples he collected from his last location. And then at night, maybe some more solo investigations.