Welcome to chapter 5! Last update before Christmas...
The next few days were tedious ones. Akane found no time the following morning to get books from the library as planned, nor had the time to visit Saiga. It was as soon as she had made way to go through with both of these objectives that she got a phone call from Mika saying that she needed to meet her and the rest of Division 1 at the Grand Music Hall immediately. Grumbling to herself, Tsunemori cancelled her appointment with Saiga and made her way to the GMH. She came to realise though, as she parked outside the large and beautifully crafted building, that she was about to walk into another homicide investigation.
She slid out of her car, zipping up her jacket and rolling the hood on her head. She held herself as she made her way inside, the heels of her shoes dangerously slipping against the icy surface of the gravel. She managed to remain intact from the icy blitz of the outside world as she got to the steps of the GMH. She opened the doors and went inside, being met by an obnoxiously annoyed Mika.
"Ma'am." She said firmly, "I have to say this now, I am not happy that you hired a hacker to 'help' with this investigation."
Tsunemori rolled her eyes, Mika thankfully not seeing the action. Tsunemori sighed deeply and stopped in her pace, she turned to Mika and said calmly. "You aren't happy by most things I do, but why may I ask are you upset about this particular aspect of my authority?" Mika was at first surprised by Tsunemori's snap, but easily relaxed and scoffed.
"She's insane, going on about 'greed' which has nothing to do with this homicide." As Akane walked, she followed. As soon as Tsunemori heard the word 'greed' she knew that Mika hadn't seen the scene yet. She hadn't even read the case file if it meant following the direct order of Ginoza or Tougane. No, this girl didn't know a thing, not this time. Mika all but continued, Akane meanwhile hardly listened. "She is also taking complete control, once I said that her theories were obscene and completely insane, that she had no evidence at all that this murder is of the other's, she kicked me out of the room. I haven't even seen the body yet!"
Akane swirled around and stopped Mika mid-breath of her next half of speech, she crossed her arms and looked at Mika sternly. "Two days ago, Laius Knight, an inmate at the institute picked up a Dominator and shot himself in the head with it whilst it was on Eliminator mode. Yesterday, we watched a recording of a man who sold children on the sly into prostitution get tortured and decapitated. This is all done by one particular hacker, Sphinx. He or she, are killing people that Sibyl have yet to judge or have plainly missed out completely. They always leave a sign at their crime scenes that relate to the person's deadly sin. The first two were Pride and Gluttony. Now Mika, tell me, did you even read the report? Or did you go in there and try and do my job, instead of your own, again without any knowledge of what to do or what is happening?"
Mika's eyes widened in complete shock, she opened her mouth to speak but Tsunemori cut her off by slamming the entrance door to the main stage in her face. She was in no real mood to see Mika this morning, the young girl was a lot more naive than Tsunemori ever was at the job. She was quick to snap at anyone who had a high Psycho-Pass and judged Tsunemori's logic. Which had today, caused Akane to snap to a level she had never been before.
In reality though, she knew it needed to be done. No matter how much her stomach clenched in worry about how Mika would take the scolding.
Rheya was sat on the stage of the hall, looking up to the ceiling and touch typing away at her tablet. Sho was standing behind a projector, probably looking through to find any clues. Tougane was going through the stalls individually to also look for any clues that could be found, whilst Ginoza and Yayoi stood behind Rheya looking where she was looking, their faces pale in disgust.
Ginoza spotted Tsunemori and nodded, "Lady Viktorya Baranovsky, lead Violin player that recently started a tour in Japan with her personal Orchestra; Izbav' nas. She is well known the Classical Music industry as a prodigy. She was only in her early twenties." Tsunemori had been looking at Viktorya's body whilst Ginoza talked. She nodded for him to continue. "She was found this morning by a group of cleaners, time being around four. She had reportedly been staying late at this hall to rehearse. She has always wanted to play in Japan, so this tour meant a lot too her. She had been signed to receive five hundred million yen to tour in the country." Tsunemori walked under the body and winced slightly, nodding for him to continue, but was shocked when Rheya spoke instead.
"She was killed before she was hung." She began, "Her mouth and nostrils aren't filled with the ash or fumes that the fire would've come with her dying in the fire. From what I can see, her throat shows signs of strangling. Though I doubt with hands, probably with a wire or something. I've got some drones to look at the instruments in the hall to double check for any murder weapons. As you can see, her heart has been taken out. Which is what is being lit up with the projector." She peeked up through her eyelashes, "Someone cut off the smoke detectors, too."
"No notes?" Tsunemori managed.
"Nope." Rheya mumbled, "Though I doubt that this isn't a Sphinx murder. It is theatrical enough."
By this point, Mika had been in the room for several minutes. Her face still red, and her arms crossed securely across her chest. "Viktorya was my mother's favourite classical music player. She liked that she sprung from the ordinary. She didn't play like most violinists."
Rheya smirked, "She was well known for being expressional of her work. She never followed the notes, she made her own up. To her, they sounded refined and modern. To many critics, she was right."
"Could a critic be the true murderer? I mean, that could be a reason to murder someone. If you for say were ridiculed for ridiculing a modern day classical violinist, then you would be angry enough to surely kill someone." Sho mumbled quietly.
Yayoi sighed, "As much as I would understand a critics anger if that were the case, I hardly think they would risk their lives to take another. Critics are flimsy and wimpy creatures."
Rheya stretched and sat back on the stage, her tablet sat in her lap. "She's the daughter of Lord Carlisle Baranovsky, am I correct?" She asked out of the blue, causing everyone to look at her.
"Yes," Ginoza replied, his eyes curious as they looked down on her.
Rheya laid fully on the stage, "She lived a life of luxury. She was only fifteen when she became famous for changing notes on classical pieces, such as Beethoven or Tchaikovsky. She is used to be adored and needed by people. She needs it like a drug, attention being her own formulation of Heroin. She wants money more than that, that is her Cocaine, safer yet just as deadly. She is the definition of Greed itself. She needs it more and more, because it is the only way she knows how to feel any emotions." She smirked, "I should know, me and her used to attend violin-battles." She chuckled in the memory of it, "She only won three times out of the eight we duelled, believe it or not."
Sho widened his eyes, "You play the violin?"
"You duelled against Viktorya Baranovsky and won?" Mika asked in a curious tone, though Tsunemori could tell she didn't believe it.
Rheya stood up, crossing her arms. "Viktorya was nothing really but a Greed filled individual. She wanted nothing more than fame and money, and would do anything to get it. Even at one point get someone to severely beat me before one our battles so she would win… though that time, we drew…" She shrugged whilst she smirked. "Though I can't say how much further she'd go to get what she wanted, but I'd bet on something more extravagant than beating a sixteen year old." She walked to Sho and looked up to the heart dangling from a thread in front of Baranovsky's body.
Tsunemori frowned and too looked at the body and then heart. "Someone cut down the heart," It clicked to her what she had meant after she said it. Her brain as if working in autopilot this morning had thought of how Sphinx left the message to Division 1. It was simplistic, yet it symbolic. The woman who was full of Greed, who had no heart needed her heart to be filled.
The message was in her heart.
It took two Drones to cut it down, Tsunemori put on a pair of gloves before kneeling beside the organ. She used a scalpel to open up the delicately sown stitches. Slipping two fingers into the fresh slit, her fingers found something inside, it felt like plastic. She grabbed a pair of tweezers from the table that a drone handed to her. She took the plastic out. It was covered in blood and small amounts of loose tissue. Tsunemori used a tissue to wipe it away, throwing the soaked tissue on a drone. She held it up to the light, and looked at it in complete disbelief.
"Greed…" She muttered, "You were right."
Tougane looked up to the pictures as well, studying them for a few seconds before muttering, "Is that old fashioned film?"
Ginoza raised a brow, "Film? The old tape like thing that they used to make photographs before holograms?"
Rheya snorted, "Yeah, that Film." She knelt and took the film from Tsunemori, she had her leather gloves on so no one stopped her slipping the Film out of the plastic to examine it further. Akane leaned in to look as well, they both stared for a few seconds before Akane blushed slightly.
"Is that a breast?"
Rheya looked to her, "I think it is a breast of a woman, yes."
"Who's breast?" Mika asked surprised, "Why are there breasts on film?"
Rheya stared at her as if she had asked a mundane question, "Because, no one looks at film anymore."
Tsunemori took a breath, "In other words, no one would ever see these photographs apart from the people who are in them and the person who took them. Meaning it is a perfect way to sell black market pornography photographs without anyone really knowing that they exist." She stood up and sighed, "My bet that this film is proof that Viktorya Baranovsky took part in black market pornography."
Rheya continued to look at the film before she too stood up straight. Running her fingers through her hair she mumbled, "I don't think that's the extent to the story, ma'am." She glanced to Akane, "I think I know the guy she's having sex with in these photos, though I won't be one hundred percent sure until I develop them."
Mika looked confused as if she'd never heard about how to develop film before in her life, though Akane could understand, she was a bit disappointed that Mika hadn't researched in the past ways of life like most in the room had.
"Does it really matter who she was having sex with? I mean, how the hell does it connect to the case at all? So what if she was having pictures taken of her doing some guy on the sly, it isn't like people don't do that all the time." Mika interjected with an addled tone.
Rheya could sense the body language in the room, Akane could see her straighten her back as if she took offence to Mika calling her theory wrong once again. She took a deep breath and smirked, that smirk that Akane knew to be a sign that she was about to prove you wrong.
"Viktorya was given five hundred million Yen to do the Japanese tour. That was only to her alone, a quick scan into her bank account shows that she was given the money directly from the Board of Music Governors private accounts. This alone is tediously suspicious, as if someone had already thought this through. As if it had already been planned that I would think of it. The transaction was put through after five pm yesterday evening. When the Board's meeting with Viktorya ended and Viktorya came downstairs to this stage to practice. Now, the only person on the board at that hour was Neeve Herman. Lead of the Board, may I add." She crossed her arms, "He has a ring that symbolises his rank on the board."
"And?" Mika grumbled.
Rheya let out a slightly frustrated sigh, Tsunemori was surprised and allowed her to continue. Rheya put one of the frames of the film out in front of Mika, "Look closely, you have a problem of not looking before you speak. Look at the man that this victim is straddling."
Tsunemori hadn't thought much of the ring she saw in the picture until Rheya had spoke about the Board having a symbolic ring just for his rank in career. She realised then and there that Neeve Herman had been the man that Viktorya had been having sexual relations with whilst in Japan.
Mika too realised this as she spotted the ring, she blushed. "So, he was the man she was having sex with. Maybe he killed her, maybe she secretly took the pictures and he found out?"
"No," Yayoi said, "look at her face, she's enjoying it too much to know that a camera is taking photographs of her. Rather she is enjoying it because she is getting what she wants. Money, and lots of it."
"So none of them knew?" Sho said, blushing.
Rheya rubbed her eyes, "I won't know anything whilst the evidence we have has been developed further to be confirmed evidence that will help us." She looked to Tsunemori, as if pleading. Tsunemori could see that her awkwardness was starting to show, that feeling that she must get whilst being around people must be starting to crack. Akane realised that she got like this when she wasn't the person with the answers, that she hardly had the answers to give to people anymore.
Akane clicked her fingers to gain some attention, "Let's go back to headquarters and get Shion to develop the film, we'll do a postmortem on the body and go through in a group meeting what we think so far. Understand?"
"Yes ma'am," they called back in unison.
He had been doing some detective work for himself lately. She hasn't been answering his calls recently and was starting to get irritated. He left emails instead, knowing she preferred that way of contact. No reply. He instead decided to take matters into his own hands. Her apartment wasn't far from his own, and she never used to mind him just going inside whenever he wanted. So when he broke into her apartment for the thousandth time in his life, he felt no guilt.
Her apartment was small, he was used to that by now. He liked her small space as it smelt just like she did. Cigarettes, musky perfume and elderflowers. He enjoyed that everything was no more than a few steps away from you, no matter your place in the apartment. To his left from the front door, was her small four by four bathroom, shower, shower curtain that still dripped with water, a toilet with the seat down and a floor mat that still was damp. She hadn't been out long, it seemed.
After locking the door with a hook and a key to make it seem it had been locked from the outside, he moved through her apartment. Going into her bedroom, where her bed sheets were still tossed and messy from when she had slept in them. He sniffed, her scent was strong in here. He could imagine that she stayed in here most of the time. It was her little sanctuary.
He opened one of her bedside draws, finding a little device nestled between some cloth. He thought it was a sex toy, he had to be honest with himself, that when he found out it was actually just a tracking device that was made to look like a bullet, he felt disappointed.
He safely put it back into the draw and stood straight. He moved to the kitchen next, making himself a tea before sitting on her worn sofa. Sipping the tea silently, he got out his laptop and made up another email.
I have a surprise for you when you get home.
Love, Ryuu.
He sat back in the seat and sighed deeply, "Love… me." He pursed his lips before shutting the lid of his laptop and waited.
She had managed to sneak out of headquarters to the library on her lunch break, she said that she had a lunch appointment with her grandmother, which was how she left without suspicion. As much as she disliked lying that she was spending time with her grandmother, it was unfortunately a thing that needed too be done.
She had promised though that she wouldn't be too long, she had an hour, hopefully it would enough time.
Of course traffic didn't hear her silent wish, she took twenty minutes to get to the library when in reality, it should've taken ten. She paid for her parking before entering the older building, inside drones sailed through the halls silently. There wasn't a pin sound in the library, it was deadly quiet. Good. She could work in peace.
She asked the drone where the history section was, also the political and the Dendrology sections. She wrote down where she could find them when told, and walked to the history section first.
She searched for five minutes, searching the encyclopaedia for the exact destination of the villages that were cut off from Sibyl. She had no luck, frowning she moved onto the political section, doing the same thing as before. There, she found something. A newspaper clipping within a book called, 'Sibyl System's battle with the barbarian within the pine,' Tsunemori wondered if the title was a joke at first, but then realised how far up their own egotistical ass Sibyl truly were.
The newspaper clipping was only two paragraphs long, but it named two of the possible twenty villages. Which was a start. Tsunemori copied the newspaper clipping's text into a notepad she had brought with her. The text read:
Two more small town villages have rejected the Sibyl system's help today, after a small time riot within their barriers. MWPSB managed to calm the riot before heading back to the city where hours later, Sibyl decided to allow their independence, on the condition there would be some checks to see if any wanted convicts that could be arrested when needed.
All twenty rioting villages allowed such conditions, and have now started their lonely venture into independence without the graceful help of Sibyl. Two of the twenty villages that were the main point of the riots, have apparently however, said that since they are an independent village, there is no need for Sibyl to interfere, stating: "We will protect our people." The two villages names are: Pinewood and Snowville. They also happen to be the biggest of the now independent villages. We will update you of the villages progress or decrease when there is news.
She walked from the Political section to the Dendrology section, next. There she found out that there only actually two villages off the Sibyl system's grid that were hidden in within Pine trees. Both separated from each other by a large forest that went on for a couple of miles. These villages were the same as the ones in the newspaper clipping. She smirked, underlining the name in the notebook and sighing. He was in either one of these villages right now. Hiding away from her direct vision.
Where are you, Kogami?
That was when she looked at her watch, widening her eyes as she realised that she had ten minutes to get back to the station on time. She packed away her things and left the library unnoticed.
When she got back, everyone was in a circle of thought. Ginoza glanced in her direction, and then gestured towards Rheya who looked like she was in a middle of a deep thought. Tsunemori piped quickly, "Let me guess, our victim really was no saint?"
Yayoi shook her head, "No she wasn't. We've found evidence confirming that Baranovsky was keeping the money that would pay for her Orchestra for herself. Ultimately, becoming one of the richest Violinists in the world in one tour."
Mika bit her lip, "She also booked another tour in Italy, right after the one here. She would be paid even more there, and again, there are signs that she would've kept the money."
"How did no one notice?" Tougane mumbled from the corner.
Rheya cut in, finally. Her voice strained, as if she'd been holding in her anger from earlier. "Someone did notice." She said, "The killer noticed. The reason however why she died, is unclear. Why kill someone just because they kept money? There must've been another reason."
Sho bit his lip, worryingly glancing at Rheya before muttering quietly, "I found something quite interesting….Um, would you like to look?"
"Yes, please." Tsunemori replied kindly, taking the paper from his hands. She scanned it and raised a brow, surprised by what she saw on the paper. "She owned her own trust fund? For up and coming classical musicians around the world?" She clicked her tongue, "Maybe she was taking the money for that."
Ginoza shook his head, "By what Rheya has explained about the woman, I find that unlikely, ma'am."
"Explain?" Tsunemori said blandly.
He sighed, "I've looked into her trust fund, the fund is unknown by any official Musical Boards. No one has even heard an utter about it being recently released, either. So I asked Shion too look into it, and she came up with evidence that Lady Baranovsky was keeping the money for herself, as the trust fund's bank account only has several thousand American dollars inside. Kind of skimpy, for funding the future of music, don't you think?"
Rheya took in a sharp breath, "There it is… Motive." She stood up and gritted her teeth, "Kings in the old times were killed by their people from stealing from the poor. Mythologically, Robin Hood took from King John to give to the poor, correct?" They all nodded, "Robin Hood despised that the rich took from the poor, people who indeed needed the money more than people who didn't work a day's labour in their life." She smirked, "The killer knew this, he or she knew that Baranovsky was stealing from the poor." She widened her eyes, "Wait…" She sat back down, pulling up her tablet and typing away. "What if she took the motive of Robin Hood one step further. For instance, killing Baranovsky? Like Robin Hood eventually must've done to Prince John, right?"
Mika raised a suspicious brow, "Are you saying… Sphinx is pretending to be a fictional character to gain points?"
"Not necessarily for points, but for their own self indulgence for sure. They're egotistical. They think if they do something remotely good, it'll clear their sins." She looked up, "That's why he or she targeted the one woman who was full of sins. Full of Greed."
Rheya turned the tablet screen to them all, "Tokyo's largest orphanage, the one that is going to be shut down soon due to lack of funds. It recently received a large sum to their bank accounts. By recently I mean this morning."
"How much?" Tsunemori dared to ask, knowing the answer before she said it.
"Five hundred million yen." Rheya replied, smirking. "Sphinx wanted to kill of Greed once and for all."
"And she probably slept with Neeve because he noticed, she did it to keep him quiet" Tsunemori said, "question is still, where did the film come from? Who planted it?"
"Sphinx," Rheya said in reply. "It isn't much to know that a greedy person would do anything to get money. Even if it was through sleeping with the leader of things… shall we say."
Mika suddenly burst, "But why! Why kill her over some money stealing?"
"Because, it relates back to the deadly sins. Greed is a sin that can't be unpunished. Sphinx sees this as another way of following those rules." Ginoza said softly.
Mika puffed her cheeks, "Pathetic reasoning, if you ask me."
Rheya gave Tsunemori a look as if to say, 'no one did.'
He got the letter that morning, he had been staring at it for hours. Cigarette after cigarette, he smoked. Though the fire blared behind him within the confinements of his wood burner, there was a slight chill climbing up his spine all the same.
The paper crinkled under his fist, he had almost scrunched it up in his palm. He knew what it had said, he didn't need to look at it again.
Though the picture he received along with it… he kept. It sat, still smooth, on his kitchen table. He hadn't stopped looking at it. She was okay.
She had changed… Her hair was still short, and she was still tiny framed. But she had grown an inch or two, and her bust had filled out at least one half of a cup size… She looked great, sitting in that library and reading books.
She looked like she was studying something, but he had no idea what at first. It wasn't until he leant forward to study it further, that the chill up his spine hit critical.
She's caught on about the off-grid villages…
He rubbed his eyes slowly, "God Akane…" I want too see you… but that's impossible… Please don't find me.
He looked back to the letter, flattening it back on the table and giving it another read. He sighed and closed his eyes, "God please, no…"
She's looking good… almost as if she's found something to live for.
Sphinx.
Hello there! I hope you all enjoyed the fifth chapter! Who is Ryuu? Who is he waiting for? And... KOGAMI! HELLO! (pls, open your arms to the fact that Akane is gonna do her best to find you... pls.) Mika isn't my favourite character in the anime, btw. I just think she needs to mature, and stop being a bit of a loaded gun towards the enforcers and Akane.
Be nice to Akane, she is more fragile than she looks.
REVIEW, that'll be lovely! This is the last update until after Christmas! So I won't see you all until then. So MERRY CHRISTMAS! In the mean time, read my other fanfic for Fairy Tail!: The Four Kingdoms. Follow my tumblrs! m-o-n-s-t-r-o-u-s (Black and white blog) and my anime blog, lovemakespiritsstronger !