Whoop, hit publish too early on this one, sorry all. Seeing I had this one finished already, I decided I might as well light it up, too.

Also, apologies for tinkering so much with my published stories. Part of why I never published my works is the bad habit of never putting the pencil down...

May 10th, 2011

Perhaps praising Dojima-san for the amount of data he had gathered for her on her first day had been a mistake.

Her progress had turned out to be frustratingly slow, as the material provided had not resulted in the quick summary she had hoped for. After nearly a week in Inaba, Naoto was still working on covering the basics of the investigation so far.

While there was an impressive amount of collected notes and information, she found a lot of it lacking; in some cases even fully missing from the police files. Especially the interviews conducted were unsatisfying. Naoto pushed her cap up with her pen, absently chewing on her lip as she poured over the interviews once more. This time she had ordered the interview files by case and conduction time.

First up. Saki Konishi, witness due to being the first person to report the body of Mayumi Yamano – and then the second victim. She was interviewed more than once – quite possibly because she was first interviewed while in shock. She had not been able to tell them too much, Naoto knew. When Miss Konishi had discovered the scene, the body had been at the location for several hours already. Still, Adachi-san must have thought her knowing more. He kept going back to interview her.

Second. Keiko Tsunaku, resident at the first murder location. She had not contributed much, either. All Naoto had gathered from her was that she had been sleep, had not noticed anything during the night and had rushed on the street when she heard Miss Konishi cry out.

Naoto stood up and stretched out, turning over the folder stack. Third. One of the police officers. First officer at the scene of Miss Yamano's body. Practically all he had done, being a regular patrol officer, was secure the scene and the names of witnesses. Again, not much to take from this one.

Fourth. Five different staff members at the Amagi Inn. Two chefs, two of the servant staff and the manager, Miss Amagi. These had been surprisingly well documented and succinct. These had not given her the leads she needed, either.

Sitting back down, Naoto pulled her coffee cup closer and sipped, flipping through the Amagi-interviews once more. Look at the questions. See what is missing. Find the questions you would have asked… Though much to her own annoyance, they did ask the questions she would have. Aside from the stressed nature of their guest, the staff at the inn had not noticed anything out of the ordinary. Reading through it all again would be a waste of time. Close the document, move on.

Fifth. Telephone interview of Misuzu Hiiragi, on tour at the time. This file had both a typed copy and a recording attached. Miss Hiiragi sounded bored, her answers were brief and she generally seems to not even care if her husband-in-separation was a suspect in a murder case or not.

Moving on. Sixth. Taro Namatame, husband of Misuzu Hiiragi, separated. Now this was interesting. A new interview had been conducted after the first, but the filing had been sloppy and the first interview looked very much out of context. She flipped back to the front page and checked the officers name. But of course. Adachi was the one who worked on it.

Naoto was not sure she could make herself think highly of Adachi-san. Yes, he was young, certainly. This was his first assignment since graduation from the police academy, Dojima-san had pointed out when she voiced her frustration. That, and that it wasn't any of some kids' business. But would a young officer just out of the school simply not remember basic filing principles? She kept seeing his work and kept thinking it was of poor quality overall. As things currently stood, time would be better spend working on her case. She had not been requested to work on raising the efficiency of the staff at this office, so for now this would have to remain a thing to keep in the back of her mind.

Interview seven and eight in the time line of interviews. Two of Miss Yamano's coworkers at the TV station. Naoto had had high hopes for these two, but following up was only a matter of a few phone calls to find it had mainly been useless gossip.

And that was it. How? This was already it? Really, how did they stop their investigations at that point? No notes on what other interviews were conducted, either. How was anyone to piece together an understanding from such poor record-keeping?

The second set of interviews had been even less promising. Immediate family, local residents near the site. All in all, only five interviews had been conducted. Ridiculous! That could not possibly been all available information that had been there to secure or locate.

She stood back up and walked to her map on the wall.

The first victim being not from Inaba had seemed important at first. In any community, strangers are often targeted. Be that due to their looks, behavior or simply by not feeling as secure in a space that they are new to. The more she read however, Inaba seemed too quiet and idyllic to invite the type of aggression that is found in bigger cities directed at outsiders.

Naoto turned, resting her back against the wall, tugging down her cap. Her hand remained raised, her eyes glancing without focus on the grayish-brown floor covering. Murder always had a connection to either strong emotion or to utter lack of emotion. Jealousy, rage, fear on one side; lack of empathy, mental illness or the dubious profession of assassin on the other. Due to the prominent location of the victim, paired with the elaborate placement of the body, murder was the only logical conclusion however.

And then there was the second victim.

Someone knocked.

"Yes, enter." Naoto pushed herself off the wall, squared her shoulders and stood up straight to meet the eyes of one of the officers who was now poking his head in.

"Hey, Shirogane, you wanted these copies of the last interview conducted about that Konishi-issue?"

"The murder, yes. Have you finished pulling my latest set of requests, officer?"

The man nodded, plopped three slim folders on the desk by the door, gave a mock-salute and turned to leave, pulling the door shut. Naoto's eyes narrowed at the smirk the man had on his face as he left. Sure, her progress had been slow this time around, but openly mocking her? She needed a fresh lead, and soon, to stem that kind of behavior.

Saki Konishi was a local, unlike Miss Yamano. Naoto had high hopes for the information in her case being much more cohesive and meaningful. That it had turned out to be so meager was both confusing and worrying.

Until now, she had also not been able to link anything aside from Miss Konishi having been the first on the scene of the first murder. She had had no contact with Miss Yamano. Nothing else seemed to connect them, if she went by the information presented to her so far.

Frankly, it was not possible. Inaba was a very small town. She knew it already well enough to no longer need to pay attention when walking to her apartment or stopping by any of the local shops for a bite to eat. How could, in such a small community, one of the locals be murdered and nothing tied them back to anyone else?

She walked over to the desk against the wall and picked up the new stack of papers she had been provided. If nothing else, this could be the next piece she was missing from her puzzle. Sitting back down at the table, she opened the files and started to browse.

In general, the crime around the shopping district was very low-key. A snatched purse, a missing mobile phone. A few years ago, someone had vandalized the shrine. Seriously, who'd come up with taking their boredom out on an already run-down shrine? Pitiful.

But aside from this normal level of vandalism and thievery, nothing else stood out. The bulk of the unnatural deaths in Inaba seemed to be car accidents, accidental drowning ('Quite likely unsupervised children, if the water level of the Samagawa was any indication') and less than a dozen accidents due to food allergies; the last of which had been over a decade ago. Actual murder happened about ten times - in over eighty years.

All in all, this town didn't seem the place that breed murderers. And since they had started with a foreign element, Miss Yamano, the chances were that she had inadvertently brought the murderer with her. So what was it? A crazed fan? A stalker? Someone yet to identify, or indeed someone she had overlooked so far?

Pushing her cap back with the marker she used to highlight sections in the new reports, she continued to browse her new material.

Her cap on her chest, booted feet dangling off the end of the bed, Naoto lay on the cot in her temporary office at the Inaba police station. She wasn't frowning at the ceiling. She was simply concentrating, that's all. No matter what Dojima-san had just said, she wasn't being 'difficult'. She was, however, concerned.

Something was missing. Something big. Whatever it was, Naoto was certain that the moment she'd spot it, it would be obvious. The thought that she could already be overlooking a vital detail gnawed on her. After several days of reading reports, interviews, studying case files and maps she had not yet found a new lead that the police had missed so far. Why? How could a murderer with such a bold call card not be easier to track?

She caught the corner of her lip between her teeth, her eyes glazed, her mind sorting through the data she had absorbed so far.

If we assume that the murderer had killed Konishi because she could have provided witness against him (or her!), why did her perpetrator again take the risk of using the very elaborate call card when placing out the body? According to any of the local reports, the cult of Nyx which had been an issue a few years ago, had never taken on strongly in Inaba, and that was the last known great cult activity. If we search into smaller religious sects, there are simply none on any government radar right now. Maybe checking with the younger population of the city could help.

Or maybe she was procrastinating from finding the true causes.

Swinging her legs off the cot she sat up – and looked across the room at the map. Absent-minded she pulled her cap back on her head and walked to it.

She had taken care to colour-code the locations of the murders, the interview partners, where they lived, where they had been talked to.

Without looking, she pulled one of the needles with the blue flag, the Konishi-colour, from the side of the cork board. After eyeing the map for a moment, Naoto used it to follow the line from the site of her murder to her home. It was not a direct path at all. Strange. The needle returned and tried to connect Junes, her place of employment, and her home in the shopping district. Again, Konishi would not have ended up where she was found. The route was a considerable detour.

Naoto's not-frown deepened as she pushed the tip of the needle back to the site of Konishi's body. Junes. Her home. Her school. None of these had been on-route. In fact, these rice fields were out of all of Saki Konishi's standard pathways.

She pushed the pin back to the far side of the map, turned and picked her coat up from the back of her chair. The basics were covered. It was now time for her to get to the groundwork – sightings of the locale and on-hands investigation of the case.

Not that she would easily show it to the outside world, but in a small space inside her chest she felt excitement. As she had so often read as a child "The game is afoot!" and she very much took pleasure in the part that would come next for her. Filling in all those gaps she felt had been left by the police as she read reports and took notes the previous days.

Right now the questions that interested her the most were these: What, aside from the call sign, connected these two murders? What is there to know about Konishi as a student, as a sister, daughter and as a coworker and neighbor? Miss Yamano's life was quite public, but Miss Konishi attended the local high school. Also, not to forget, finding new people to talk to about the case would be a top priority. Surely the few interviews that had been conducted were a good start to the investigation, but they had barely touched the surface just as surely.

Naoto left the station, pulled her collar up with both hands, tucked her cap down and set out to finally take control of this investigation.

May 13th, 2011

'Politeness. Politeness was key here', she reminded herself. Glaring at the utterly disinterested officer would not speed up his phone conversation or make him wish to assist her with her inquiry. Folding her hands behind her back, she settled in to wait. Standing right beside the desk of the officer. Let him think she felt like eavesdropping, maybe it would finally make him hang up.

As frustrating as these stops in her working routine were, they were still understandable. After all, she was only a private consultant, even if she had the Shirogane name to herself, and civilians simply could not be trusted to walk in and out of sensitive areas on their own liking.

However, sometimes it was simply irritating to wait for access to something she required. Just how long could one repeat "…huh!" and "…Oh, really?" before the other side deemed it would be time to move on and spending their day better? This is why she hated phones. Even text messages to a point. She only send the bare minimum in her messages, to make sure she would not waste her own time, or the time of the recipient.

When the man finally gave her a resigned look and finished up his call, Naoto had noted down two other pieces of information she wanted to review. 'I guess waiting for him to conclude his conversation was not fully wasted time after all.'

"Whattaya need, sonny?" Why did he sound resigned? She had been the one waiting!

"Shirogane. And I would like to request your files on one…" she confirmed with her notes, "Tatsumi, Kanji."

The officer looked surprised. "Really? The Tatsumi kid? Why on earth?"

"There are some unanswered questions concerning his recent movements."

The man shrugged, got up, and entered some queries into a computer standing higher up on a counter. "I know he's a rough kid, but I am not sure he's a killer, you know? I'm just saying, you'll be out wasting your time."

Naoto's jaw clenched, but she kept her face as passive as she could. This, too, simply happened way too often. 'Oh, it could not be such-and-such', 'that's why we never even investigated them fully', or, 'No, that person is right out, we cannot investigate them' – usually because of some political reason. Out of her 24 cases she solved on her own, six alone she needed to keep digging for answers and then keep hunting for someone who would finally listen to her and take action. It was tiresome and delayed work needlessly.

"You concern for my time is noted, officer" she said firmly, "but I was asked to investigate all of the case, and Kanji Tatsumi was seen several times speaking to members of the Konishi family. Not speaking to him would be a crass oversight."

The officer's narrowed eyes shot her a glance from behind the computer before muttering something inaudible.

"I would also like to…" she checked her notes, "…to learn more about the Konishi liquor store. The notes concerning Miss Konishi's interview are confusing and not kept to standard formatting style, so I have problems reading some of the details. Were there any other files that may not have been added to this case?"

The officer glared at his monitor and shrugged mutely.

Naoto settled in to wait for the officer to pull up the needed information and produce a copy for her.

Silences did not bother her. She had learned to use the advantages of prolonged silence for her own use early in life. Why try to fill silence with any verbal communication, when simply observing those around you? There was simply no need to take any action against the absence of verbal communication. Indeed, people spoke too much and said too little as it is.

Naoto kept her neutral expression in place deliberately as she turned to look back into her note pad. Both the Tatsumi family and the Konishis were shop owners in what is known as the old shopping district. How closely linked would these families be? Indeed, how did any of the local shop owners interact with one another here in Inaba? She added another note on her page marked Inquiries.

"All right. Printing your copy."

"Excellent", she replied without looking up, "thank you for your assistance, officer."

Walking from one end of the shopping district to the other should give her a better idea about the social and fiscal situations of the persons involved. Miss Yamano also stayed at a local business. Another note to add: What are the connections between the Amagi Inn and the Konishi Liquor store? If the murders were this elaborate to pull the police on a wrong track, then an investigation into the economic stability of the privately owned business in Inaba might be called for.

She only looked up when a stack of papers was slapped on the counter before her. The officer had turned away with a deep frown and without any further words. He possibly was just busy. No need to take his reaction to heart.

Gathering up the surprisingly thick folder on the Tatsumi youth, Naoto returned to her temporary office.

By now, she had fully given up on interactions with any of the officers. None aside from Dojima-san and Adachi-san had worked directly with the case and the autopsies had been conducted by a medical examiner at the local hospital. Inaba was simply too small to have their own official police team for this. She could learn nothing new from the other officers and as such, interaction with them would only be small talk. An unnecessary activity that would simply distract her from her work.

Pulling off her cap and running a hand through her short hair briefly, Naoto closed the door. Knowing that the police had skipped looking into this young man was promising. She felt she was about to get her first real break in the case.