Weather had been so active around here lately it's been giving me a hard time to write.

- Chapter 11 -

Akane

~ Day 4 ~

Everything is going exactly as I had feared right from the start that I'd see the hours pass bit by bit and I'd be no closer to finding Mr. Ginoza. All that could go wrong in an investigation is happening and I just don't know what it is that I should do.

I'm all alone now, inspector Aoyanagi can't help me and honestly that's what I did wrong right from the start of this investigation. I depended too much on another inspector when I should have had more confidence in myself and solemnly relied on my enforcers to get this job done.

As an inspector it is my job to push them and then follow towards whatever trail they may have found for me and chances are it would have been the right one.

First of all I have to utilize the memory scoop that Mr. Kougami put himself through yesterday; I can't allow it to go to waste. Thanks to it we have gained a list of possible suspects and right now Ms. Karanomori is going through each one of them to check when was the last time they had gotten a hue check.

We'll then go by the ones whom haven't had a hue check recently and go investigate one by one and go from there.

In all honesty I don't like the idea of wasting so much time but at this point I don't have much of a choice in the matter and I can't wait around for inspector Aoyanagi to wake up from her coma to get information about who attacked her. Chances are that she probably did not even see who it was anyway and the thing is that she hasn't shown any signs of recovering…

The doctor said that it was a bit too early to say but he believes that the swelling in her brain might not go away, that inspector Aoyanagi might not come back to us at all but I wasn't able to decide if I should tell that to Mr. Kougami right now considering everything that's happened…

I've given inspector Shisui the task to show the images to Mr. Hinamiya if he can identify the one who gave him the paintings while I go and see if I can have a word with professor Fukushima at Mr. Kougami's old high school bringing Mr. Masaoka and Mr. Kougami along with me.

After the violent attack on inspector Aoyanagi, I know for a fact that this person isn't frail and I'm certain that both Mr. Masaoka and Mr. Kougami must also believe that so for me it is crucial that they both see professor Fukushima first hand. That way they will be able to deduce if it is possible for such a man to have been able to injure inspector Aoyanagi like the culprit did.

The school ground is quiet and calm as we walk through the main entrance where we are greeted by an old woman seated behind a large desk at the reception.

"May I help you?" She asks with a soft smile.

A few months ago I would have been completely fooled by this woman's smile; at first glance she seems so nice and gentle. I'm sure she must be but only towards people who have no history or connection with latent criminals that is and that's just wrong.

"Yes. I am Akane Tsunemori." I tell her as I present my badge. "I'm an inspector for the MWPSB and these are my colleagues. I demand to see professor Fukushima at once." I add and her face suddenly becomes serious as she eyes Mr. Kougami and Mr. Masaoka proving what I had first assumed. That she despises latent criminals and sees them as nothing more than insects that must be quickly squashed.

For a few seconds she doesn't move, as if she was processing everything I had just said before calling for my suspect to come to the reception immediately but she doesn't say anything else as she returns to her usual work while ignoring us completely.

I could have asked to know where my suspect's classroom was and gone to get him myself but I can't do that to a man that may not even be guilty. If he turns out to be innocent of which I'm almost positive that he will be, tarnishing his reputation would be the last thing I'd want to do. From the information that I've gathered about this man, he is held in high regards in this school and is well respected by both the staff and students.

"Does it feel strange being back in your old school Mr. Kougami?" I ask after watching him a few minutes as he looks around catching his attention.

"No… Just brings back memories, that's all…" He answers but doesn't say anything else as he wanders around the entrance but I can tell he isn't too fond of the receptionist here so there must have been some history between both of them that I'm not aware of. I wonder if it has anything to do with Mr. Ginoza, probably it does…

"Yes? Are these people here for me?"

I turn towards the old voice that is much softer than I had expected it to be, belonging to a short chubby old man whom is clearly suffering from osteoporosis just by quickly observing his body structure and his body movement is slow I'd also suggest that he might also be suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.

So this is professor Fukushima. He's only a little taller than I am but with his curbed shoulders I'd assume that he was once taller but sickness is deteriorating his body. There is absolutely no way that this man could have attacked inspector Aoyanagi nor could have abducted Mr. Ginoza from his home and killed a full size dog with ease. It's just not possible unless he's a great actor which I highly doubt it.

"Ahhhh!" He softly exclaims as he walks towards us with a smile. "I remember you… Top of the class." He adds as he extends his shaking hand to Mr. Kougami to take which he does in respect.

"Professor Fukushima, could it be possible to speak in private?" I ask taking his attention off Mr. Kougami. "I'm Akane Tsunemori, an inspector for the MWPSB and these are my colleagues and I need to ask for some information if you may?" I add as I show him my badge.

He nods and gives a sorrowful smile to Mr. Kougami, even though I didn't say anything about their status to the older man, he knows what Mr. Kougami is… I guess so many had high expectations of him; if only professor Fukushima could know why it came to this. Why Mr. Kougami became an enforcer he'd understand or maybe he'd only feel even worse knowing that someone's death sent Mr. Kougami off the edge.

We slowly follow the professor into an empty conference room and the more I watch this man walk, the more convince I am that he's not the one. Actually watching him as he slowly sits down with a bit of difficulties; I can't help but feel sad and sorry for him. We live in a society where such conditions shouldn't be a problem anymore but it is. This man must be in great pain daily…

"How may I help you inspector?" He asks once we've taken a seat in front of him on the other side of the round table.

"I'm searching for a man who is wanted for several murders and I believe this man has frequented this school at some point." I tell him.

"I see but I'm not certain as to how I may be of some help for your investigation inspector." He states and I guess I kind of took the odd approach here.

This is the first time I'm interrogating someone by myself. Every time there is someone who is in need of interrogation Mr. Ginoza is the one to do it and he makes it look so easy.

"The recent victim to this murderer is Nobuchika Ginoza; I know you've had some involvement with him during our last two years of high school." Mr. Kougami suddenly blurts out calmly catching the professor's attention.

"Yes, I approached the lad after his mother's death." He admits, not even bothering to even deny it which is good meaning that he has nothing to hide. "He had some interest in flora and I thought it be good for him to participate in my green project. It would have been so sad for someone so young with such promise and potential to fall due to such a tragedy, the green project helped." He adds and now that he's mentioned the green project, I know of it.

The green project is a student body activity to reintroduce vegetation and flora in the youth and make the barren lands of Japan to be flourished again. So far, this project has been a major success and is actually encouraged to continue as it has been proven to improve the hues of the students involved so yes it makes sense that he might have wanted Mr. Ginoza to join the project and maybe that's what saved him back then.

"After profiling the unknown subject, we've discovered that this man has been stalking Nobuchika for several years, maybe more and we assume it could have started right in this school. By a teacher perhaps or a student, do you recall anything unusual that could lead us to this man?" Masaoka explains the situation and I'm actually quite relieved that I have both of them here with me right now.

By observing them even though they are enforcers I've learned a lot about this job from them and watching Mr. Masaoka and Mr. Kougami interrogate it gives me some idea on how to approach further interrogations in the future.

"Professor Fukushima, please anything that you can remember will be very helpful. Nobuchika Ginoza has been missing for ninety-six hours now, every minute counts." I quickly add and it felt strange calling Mr. Ginoza by his full name, something I'd never have dared to do before and yet although it feels strange I'd like to be able to talk with him on more of a casual side and he the same…

"Such a tragedy…" Professor Fukushima voices out after a few seconds of silence, clearly sadden by what I've just told him as he continues. "Nobuchika had a hard time in this school; Shinya could vouch for this… Many professors here at the school and some former ones would simply turn a blind eye to the abuse."

"But not you." I happily add for him as he gives me a smile and a slight nod.

"The first year was the worse for Nobuchika, Shinya saw to it that it stopped and I turned the blind eye for his actions as I saw it to be justified." He explains and I couldn't help but give Mr. Kougami a smile and the mention on how protective he was of Ginoza back in their school days. "But there was another who also shielded Nobuchika from time to time." He adds.

"I don't recall anyone else ever standing up for Gino-"

"As much as you were with Nobuchika, you were not always and those who knew that small fraction of routine did their dirty work I'm afraid." Professor Fukushima states cutting Kougami off before continuing. "Days that you were not in school were quite dangerous in the first year for Nobuchika. We were only two professors at the time that did not turn a blind eye to it." He adds and I can't help but give out a quick glance towards Kougami.

Although he's remained poker face I know that Ginoza being secretly bullied behind his back was news to him so I take it that Ginoza didn't tell Kougami everything like he thought he did which is bad because if Ginoza kept something like that secret then what else didn't he say.

"Who was that?" Kougami quickly asks before I could.

Professor Fukushima looks at Kougami and then back to me as he thinks about what to say. "My apologies but I have forgotten his name but he was a tall man, almost seven feet tall and strongly build too… Oh dear what was his name?"

"I don't recall anyone like that." Kougami blurts out and somehow it makes sense. It's just like what Kougami had told me about how stalkers behave and if this man had only started stalking Ginoza during that time then he probably kept his distance or maybe he kept his distance because of Kougami and only approached Ginoza when he was alone.

"He was an art teacher and also the instructor for physical education but his art classes were not very famous within the students…" He states as he slightly shifts in his chair before continuing. "He'd often try to convince Nobuchika to learn how to defend himself and that he would teach him himself if need be but I talked Nobuchika out of it. Violence should not solve violence and Shinya alone was enough, Nobuchika is soft hearted. Him using violence would not have been favourable." Professor Fukushima adds.

I think the man professor Fukushima just described to us may in fact be our man but even if he doesn't have a name, he should be in the school's database and I doubt it that there are many giants in Japan so he should be easy for Ms. Karanomori to find.

"Thank you professor, you were of great help to us. I believe that you have given us a great lead in our investigation." I tell him as I get up, giving a light bow in gratitude.

"I will pray for Nobuchika's safe return." He says as he slowly gets up to me us out of the conference room.

XXX

XXX

Mr. Hinamiya was able to come early this morning when I left to question professor Fukushima and inspector Shisui took over pretty well and showed him the pictures of all the possible suspects but he wasn't able to recognize any of them as the guy he had met and just like Kougami had voiced out afterwards that maybe the guy that gave the paintings to Mr. Hinamiya might have been a dud also which is pretty possible considering that he's done it before so why not twice in a row.

When we return to the MWPSB from having interrogated professor Fukushima I had asked Ms. Karanomori to run a search through the staff personnel of Kougami's old school but she found absolutely nothing. However, from what she could see, it looked like someone had hacked into the system and erased certain files and what a coincidence that the art and physical education teacher during the years Kougami and Ginoza were there is missing from the database.

Every time we get a momentum this man has already beaten us to the chasse and again we are stuck with nothing.

Professor Fukushima said that if he can remember the name of his former colleague, he would contact me immediately but still, it's again more waiting that we just can't afford right now.

"Is there really nothing we can do? I mean there must be something?" Kagari asks and as much as I appreciate his enthusiasm right now, there really isn't anything we can go on. All we can do is wait; otherwise we'll just be going in circles again.

I look at Kougami; he's been too quiet ever since we came back from visiting professor Saiga. Okay he's never been the heavy talker but he's never been this quiet before. Even Masaoka hasn't spoken much since the beginning of this case either; I understand that both are worried about Ginoza but staying quiet in their own thoughts isn't helping. Both my top enforcers are physically here but not mentally and I need their wisdom badly for this case.

"Professor Saiga has never been wrong when it comes to profiling a criminal but he didn't have much to work with either…" Kougami says, his chin lying on his fists, breaking his silence since he interrogated professor Fukushima this morning.

"Mr. Masaoka?" I look at him as I spoke his name. "What do you think?"

"What I think?" He asks while looking at everyone before continuing. "I think we're dealing with two culprits not just one."

"What? Seriously?" I blurt out.

I'm not so sure about that since wouldn't it be easier to catch two criminals instead of just one? One of them is bound to make a slip up and expose the other which has not been the case here yet and why even use Izaya to sell his paintings in the first place if he has a partner?

Another thing if this man is as sick as Kougami believes him to be and he wants Ginoza all to himself then there is no way he'd have a partner. He wouldn't want to share his prize with anyone else but himself and just thinking about it just creeps me out at how sick and twisted a human being can be.

"No matter how you slice it little missy, it's impossible for a single man to abduct his victims without leaving some sort of trace behind." Masaoka states and I guess he has a point.

All the victims we've found so far. They all disappeared without a single trace; no one hears anything or even notices that something happened in the area. The victims were either last seen leaving from work or leaving from their home to go to work.

Ginoza is the first who actually gets abducted right into his own home so why the sudden change in motive? Why couldn't the culprit abduct Ginoza when leaving the bureau or coming in to work unless he had reasons not to…?

"I'm with pops on this one." Kougami voices out as he stretches his arms over his head.

"Yeah but why use Izaya if he has a partner?" I ask the rather obvious question from the look Kougami just gave me.

"Probably because his partner is incompetent without him. We are dealing with two criminals but one thing is for sure one of them is the dominant which is safe to assume that he's probably older too and the other is the submissive one and does everything the other tells him to. Chances are he's afraid of the older one." Mr. Masaoka answers my question as he gets up to get a can from the vending machine and comes back to his seat.

"Now that you mentioned it, it suddenly makes sense." Kagari says as he quickly grabs a sheet of paper and starts drawing something and then I realize that it's the layouts of Ginoza's home he's drawing up.

"We found Dime in the kitchen here and we know that Gino's bedroom is right at the other end of the condo here." He explains as he circles the two locations before proceeding. "One took care of the dog while the other grabbed Gino while he was sleeping. We also know that Dime's neck was fractured, the stabs must have been done afterwards so that freak could write that fucked up message in blood."

If the partner is mentally incompetent could it be maybe that he never intended on killing Dime to begin with and he simply hugged the animal too hard? If so it's not uncommon for animals to behave more passive towards handicapped individual so that would explain why Dime did not attack and before the animal knew what was happening it was too late.

"If Ginoza was sleeping when he was attacked, that would eliminate any signs of a possible struggle. Professor Saiga did mention that he believes the unknown subject to have knowledge in pharmaceutical so we can assume that a drug with anesthesia properties was used on Ginoza." Ms. Kunizuka states and it makes sense.

If a drug was administered onto Ginoza when he was sleeping, by the time he woke up in panic it was already too late as the drug had already taken its effect so I can assume that the drug used on him might have been chloroform.

"Good you're all here!"

I look over my shoulder to see inspector Shisui coming this way with a box wrapped in brown paper. She doesn't say anything as she places the box right in the middle of the table.

"What's that?" Kagari asks as he inspects the package.

"I don't know but its address to division one." She says before turning away as we stare at the box, ignoring inspector Shisui walking away.

I'm starting to have a bad feeling in my guts as I stare at the box as no one is moving and I guess were all feeling the exact same way. We're all just looking at the box as to who will have the guts to open it first.

Kougami is the one that gets up and grabs the package. Wasting little time ripping the brown paper off the box and opens it in all haste.

I stand up to look what is in the box when Kougami just stands there starring at the content. What I see in the box wasn't at all what I was expecting, without a doubt it's just like all the others we found already, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Ginoza's portrait painted in blood… I slowly take it into my hands trying to control them from shaking but very poorly. I just can't believe it, so what does this mean? Does it mean that Ginoza is dead? No this just can't be…

"Kou what is that?" Kagari's question snaps me back to reality as I look up at Mr. Kougami holding a small disc in his hands.

"We should bring it to Shion." Ms. Kunizuka states and no one argues as we all get up and I place the canvas back inside the box to bring it with the other evidence that we have in the lab.

I don't get what is the motive of this man. All current evidence shows that his real target had always been Ginoza and all the previous victims were just practice and also we recently found out that this criminal has been killing people that had previously attacked Ginoza in the past.

Everything shows that this criminal was a long time stalker and admirer of Ginoza but now with this painting, what does it mean and why send it directly to us? He didn't even bother to sell it like he did with the others, so why?

We arrive at Ms. Karanomori and quickly explain the current situation as we show her the blood painting and all she does is shake her head in disbelief as she takes the disc Kougami gave her and inserts it into her computer, waiting for a few seconds before opening the file to inspect its content.

"It seems it's just an audio recording." She tells us.

"Play it." Kougami orders and I can sense malice in his tone as he spoke.

Ms. Karanomori starts the recording as she raises the volume a little before the track starts playing. The voice that comes out of the speakers is without a doubt Ginoza's but it's the sounds that he's making that sends chills down my spine. The screams and cries of pain are almost unbearable to hear as Masaoka walks out after listening to the track for a few seconds.

Ms. Karanomori stops the track and turns around to look back at us a bit shaken. "The track last an hour and a half." She says nervously.

Kougami walks away and I quickly follow him out the lab and into the hall. I honestly have no idea what his intentions are right now, he doesn't say anything but I know he's fuming with rage.

As we walk we find Masaoka sitting on the couch in the lobby, his head resting in his hands. I can't even start to imagine what's going through his head right now. I wish I could say something but there's nothing that I can say and it's so frustrating.

"Pops…" Kougami says as he walks up to Masaoka, crouching in front of him to meet his gaze.

I can slightly hear that Kougami is telling him something but I can't understand what he's saying exactly but it doesn't take long for Masaoka to burst into tears and that really hurts. Seeing him break down like that is heart breaking. We're doing everything we can and it's still not good enough.

With a bit of hesitation I leave Masaoka to Kougami and go back to see Ms. Karanomori only to get that audio blast into my ears again

"How's old man Masaoka?" Kagari asks as Ms. Karanomori pauses the track.

"Not good." I answer back as I take a seat on the couch next to Ms. Kunizuka.

"That would be any father hearing his kid getting brutally tortured on a track and that's not knowing if he's dead." Kagari says followed by Ms. Kunizuka slapping him in the back of his head.

What do I do? Chances are that whoever delivered the package was just some random individual that the criminal chose just like he did with Izaya. If we pursue to find this person then we are doing exactly what he wants, to him this is all just a game.

He chooses random people to deliver his signatures or maybe they are not so much as random. He knows a lot about his victims before he attacks them and we know that he knows Ginoza pretty well too.

He was probably aware that Ginoza's security system was lagging or maybe he was the one who messed with it. Actually it wouldn't surprise me if he did since I know now that he is capable of deleting information in a school's database.

He knew that we would find Izaya suspicious so he used him as a form of leverage and I'm starting to wonder if this man had a hand in the accident that caused the life of Izaya's wife and daughter just to make him even more suspicious and if my assumptions are accurate. It's safe to assume that he's put a lot of time and thought into pulling this kidnapping off.

On the audio I can't tell exactly what was actually happening only that Ginoza was in a lot of pain but I have some sort of idea what it is and I just hope that I'm wrong.

"Ms. Karanomori can you find all mentally handicapped individuals that lives in Japan?" I ask when the idea came into my mind and maybe the answer was just as simple as that…

"Yeah I can run something." She states as she hits a few keys. "By the law it is required to have anyone who has a mental handicapped to be listed from birth into the Sybil system." She adds not long after a long list of individuals pop up and I can't believe just how many people are mentally handicapped in this country.

"Can you filter anyone who is over six feet tall?" I inquire and without a word Ms. Karanomori hits a few more keys and within a few seconds only one person remained in the database, Hideki Yoshida.

Ms. Karanomori opens the man's file. He's twenty eight years old and he graduated from a special program of the same high school and exact same year as Ginoza and Kougami and this man is huge. Measuring at six feet tall and five inches and weighting at a two hundred and forty-eight pounds. This man is a giant.

"Apparently he has an older brother who is ten years older than he is. His name is Seiho Yoshida with an age of thirty eight. He's no small man either with a height of six, eight and weighting at a two hundred and fifty seven pounds." Ms. Karanomori tells us and I can't help but smile, finally that's our monster.

"Where is Seiho?" I ask.

"Says that he lives with his parents, same as his brother and listen to this. Seiho Yoshida was a physical education and arts teacher in Ginoza and Shinya's old high school." She states much to my satisfaction as she continues. "His father was a pharmacist before he retired years ago and mother was an artist."

"Where does he work now?" Ms. Kunizuka asks.

"No idea. Looks like he's been changing jobs constantly within the last few years; the longest job he's had was three years and you guessed it, it was during Ginoza's years in high school." Ms. Karanomori adds.

Without a doubt that's our man I'm certain of it, but I'll have inspector Shisui bring a photo of this man to professor Fukushima and have him confirmed that he is indeed our man but I'm convinced that he is.

"What was the point of sending us that audio? That's what I don't get-."

"He wants us to know that he's in total control but he also wants to confuse and anger us so we make a mistake."

Masaoka's voice took me by surprise; his expression is stern and hard. Like a wild beast that just woke up from a long slumber and is just anxious to taste blood.

Review and tell me what you guys think, It's always fun to hear from you guys.