From Bad to Worse
A couple of days later, Shinoda began to wonder if coming to the United States was really such a good idea. After he and Io had finally stepped off the plane and into Salt Lake City, he had had numerous problems, all of which revolved around the language barrier. He had inadvertently wound up a taxi driver when he wanted to go to a hotel. He had never been any good with English; he especially had trouble with the letter 'L', and hated the way practically every word in English used it. The taxi driver had not been a patient sort with his difficulties. Io fared little better, but since she had been home-schooled she was often as clueless as he was. In the end they'd finally managed to get to a hotel and book themselves in.
Things were no better with the hotel staff; it had taken a hired translator to get the point across, and even then his budget could only allow for a room with one bed when they needed two. Shinoda felt like he really didn't need all this hassle, what with his lack of sleep coupled with the seemingly impossible task to come. In the end though, he and Io had got settled in, and they'd spent the rest of that day getting settled into the room and catching up on sleep. Now, the day after their arrival, Shinoda had only just woken up, feeling like he'd managed to shake off at least some of the jet-lag.
Noticing that Io was still asleep in the bed - Shinoda had been told to sleep on the sofa, after an argument over the only bed in the room - he thought it best not to disturb her. As he was pulling himself into the waking world, there was a sudden loud beeping from his mobile. Figuring who it was, Shinoda pulled it out and read the text he'd just received;
"Reached Salt Lake. Meet me at 'Bar Jack', midday. XX"
It was Yuki. She must have arrived yesterday, unless she didn't suffer from jet-lag to the extent Shinoda did. If only she'd arrived when he and Io had; he probably would have had much less hassle with translations. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was now 11.05am. He'd slept even longer than he'd first thought. He didn't think he was that tired, but it seemed the rest of his body had told him otherwise.
From the sounds of it, Yuki wanted to have a drink over their discussion. He only hoped this wasn't her idea of a date; now really wasn't the time for that sort of thing. It wasn't that he didn't like Yuki; he just felt there'd be time for getting together for things like this once things had settled down, once he was sure it was safe for him and those he cared about.
Shaking himself awake, he quickly got himself dressed, and headed out of the hotel room, quietly so as not to wake Io, who seemed very capable of sleeping off jet-lag. He headed down to the hotel lobby and, once again with difficulty, he managed to get directions to Bar Jack. He made sure to write them down in Japanese just so he'd remember, borrowing one of the hotel's napkins to do so. He decided to walk for fear of getting into another argument with taxi drivers.
A few minutes later, he felt that perhaps he wouldn't feel so embarrased by riding in a taxi. For he had the feeling he knew why some people gave him odd looks. He looked decidedly lost in this place, almost frightened. He almost seemed like the stereotypical tourist, a real fish out of water.
Pull yourself together, he thought, You've been following one of the largest and deadliest creatures on this entire planet for years. If you can do that, surely you can keep your wits about you in a strange city on the other side of the world.
The streets themselves were crowded with people going about their daily lives, as the human race had done for countless years. Shinoda found this strange; he'd imagined riots and panic at the discovery that a monster that they'd been told didn't exist could possibly return and destroy them all. Some people he noticed did have a sense of unease about them, almost as if they expected Monster Zero to drop out of the sky at any moment, but they were the exception to the rule of calm that seemed to be present.
Finally, he found Bar Jack, tucked away on a fairly quiet street. As he entered the bar itself, he wondered why Yuki had picked such a place; the bar seemed rather full, even at this early hour. Everyone here was probably on their lunch break, and were downing a few pints before facing the trials of work again. Shinoda picked a small table, away from the main crowd in here. He was beginning to think that this was a bad idea.
At last, a couple of minutes after midday, Yuki arrived. She hadn't changed much since the last time he's seen her, still with short black hair and baby-blue blouse. She gave a warm smile to Shinoda when she saw him, and went to order drinks from the bar. Shinoda couldn't help but wonder why she was buying drinks; it was far too early for him. As it turned out, she came over with two glasses of orange juice.
"What, no wine?" Shinoda cheekily asked. Yuki only arched an eyebrow.
"Too early, even for me," she replied, "And don't you dare offer to pay for the drinks, they're already bought and paid for. This is my treat, and besides your budget's tight enough as it is."
Shinoda sighed. He knew Yuki had him there. She'd often been ready with a retort of some kind; it had been like that ever since the first time they met. He just sipped his orange juice, even though he felt sure it had been spiked with vodka or something, judging by how it tasted.
"You know," Yuki said, after a minute, "it's lucky that I was able to come out here to see you. You won't believe the amount of cajoling I had to do to get these couple of days off. I'm supposed to be out in Alaska now, but I guess that can wait for a day at least."
Shinoda was now starting to see why Yuki had picked this place and time. More and more people were coming in, and the noise of chatter was starting to build up, so even if anybody else here understood Japanese it would be easy for them to have a quiet conversation without being overheard.
"I really appreciate this, Yuki," Shinoda said, and he meant it. "I really do. I only wish we could've met yesterday; you won't believe the amount of trouble I've had trying to understand English."
"Oh, it really isn't so bad," Yuki said, shrugging. "Don't tell me you never even tried to learn it, not even with that English friend of yours... Alan, was it?"
"I never saw the point," Shinoda said, giving a shrug of his own. "Alan had learned Japanese; we just spoke that all the time."
"At least he put in the effort," Yuki said, almost chastising Shinoda, "You should've taken a leaf out of his book."
Shinoda sighed. He felt like right now they were wasting time. Every minute they argued was one that Alan might not have. He even began to fear that the CCI were already on to him.
"Anyway, I see that's not what you're here for," Yuki said, reassuringly, figuring she had embarrassed Shinoda enough. "So what brings you to the USA anyway? I've never known you to travel abroad before, not even for Gojira, and you're obviously not here just to take in the sights, judging by the tone of your phone call."
"Okay, I'll be frank," Shinoda said, gulping down some more juice. "First though, before I tell you what I need you to do, it's best that I let you know everything that's happened. I'll tell you from the beginning..."
With that, Shinoda talked the longest he had ever done in his life. He told Yuki everything about what had happened to him a month ago, what Kiryuu was looking for, and what Alan had done to get it. He explained to Yuki about the measures both Alan and Kiryuu had taken to find the information they needed, and of how Alan had been forced to leave Japan forever because of it. Yuki was a good audience; she gasped at all the right places, and when she heard about what the CCI had done to Alan, she looked absolutely terrified.
"So..." Yuki said slowly, hardly daring to believe what she was hearing. "He's related to Kiryuu and Gojira now?"
"Seems like it," Shinoda replied. "Poor Alan... learning all of this must have messed him up terribly. He really looked lost when I last saw him. I don't think he even knew who he was at that point. I can't believe this has been kept hidden from me for so long."
Yuki shook her head, a disbelieving look on her face. "To think I thought those eyes of his were just contact lenses..." she said. "You're saying he wanted to use Alan to control Gojira? Is that even possible?"
"It's one possibility," Shinoda said, "even if it's just not very likely. I know Alan too well. He's always cared about Gojira; he'd rather die than do anything to hurt him."
Clearly Yuki was having trouble comprehending the scale of what Katagiri had tried to do. She remembered that Shinoda often spoke about how man foolishly rushed headlong into what it didn't understand. What made men like Katagiri think he could control a force of nature such as Godzilla?
"And these files..." she began, after a beat, "Kiryuu now has them?"
"I can only hope so," Shinoda said bluntly. "It's better that those things be destroyed though. One of them had a profile of something called the Oxygen Destroyer. It's the weapon that killed Gojira back in 1954."
"Dear God..." Yuki gasped. "A weapon that actually killed Gojira? The CCI had the files for this sort of weapon?! Do you think they were trying to build another one?"
"I really don't know," Shinoda said, "I wouldn't have thought so, that file didn't say anything about any other such weapons in existence. Dr. Serizawa, who made the weapon, thought he'd destroyed all of his files on the weapon; he even took his own life to seal the secret of it. However, it turned out some of his files survived, and have been kept by the government all this time. I only glanced at the file, but I saw enough to know that such a weapon should never be allowed to exist. Dr. Serizawa had a fish tank in his laboratory, where he tested the weapon. It actually liquefied all of the fish in the water. It completely destroys oxygen molecules in the water, causing any living creature caught in the blast to die of asphyxiation, their remains getting liquefied. I didn't want to read any further. It's best that no-one else finds out about the Oxygen Destroyer; the secret of it should've died with Dr. Serizawa."
Yuki was having trouble taking all of this in, this information hitting her like a ton of bricks. She was seriously beginning to worry about what she was getting herself mixed up in. It sounded like they had all stumbled onto more than they bargained for, and secrets that should have died 50 years ago.
"Does Io know about any of this?" Yuki asked, feeling she already knew the answer.
"Yeah," Shinoda said, "I saw no sense in leaving her in the dark. She treats Alan like her role model. If the CCI come after me, then they'll certainly come after Io too, and if they find out I've talked to you..."
Yuki could see what was coming. She leaned over and touched Shinoda's hand tenderly.
"I'm not afraid, Yuji," she said, determinedly. "If you need help, then I'll do what I can. I owe you that much."
Shinoda gave a slight smile. He knew he could count on Yuki, though he still feared what might happen if the CCI found out about her.
"Anyway," Yuki said, sipping more of her juice, "What can I do to help then? You had to have called me here for a reason."
"Yeah..." Shinoda said vaguely. At that point he seemed to have slipped into some sort of daydream, but quickly pulled himself out of it. "I need you to find someone for me."
"Alan?" Yuki anticipated. That seemed to be where the whole conversation was leading to, anyway.
"Yeah, but there's someone else," Shinoda said, slightly annoyed that Yuki had cut in like that. "I need you to find the address of Dr. Katsura Yugami. She's involved with-"
"The Utah Foundation," Yuki said, finishing his sentence. "I read the papers, Shinoda. She's one of the chief science advisors on the Mekagojira Project, right? Why do you need to find her?"
"I've got something that I need to return to Kiryuu as soon as possible," Shinoda explained. "I can't just march into the Utah Foundation's offices and ask to speak to Kiryuu though. I doubt I'm even supposed to have this thing, and I'm definitely not supposed to know about Kiryuu. I know Kiryuu sent it to me as a gift, but I don't think they'll believe me. Dr. Yugami's the only person I know who works closely with Kiryuu; it's best that she receive it directly and pass it on to him."
Yuki had the feeling there was more to it than that, but for once she decided not to pry any further into it. She just began to run through all this in her head. She wondered where Shinoda knew Dr. Yugami from, since he had never mentioned her before now, and also wondered what this 'something' was that he had to return.
"Besides," Shinoda continued, after an awkward silence, "if the CCI catch up to me someone has to keep Io safe." He noticed Yuki opening her mouth to protest, but quickly cut her off. "Before you say anything, I don't want you putting yourself in unnecessary danger. At least if Io's with Katsura then the CCI can't touch her; if they try to get to her they risk alerting Kiryuu to their investigation, and not even Katagiri would dare risk that, knowing what he's capable of."
Yuki looked indignant at first, but then she understood what Shinoda meant. Maybe it was for the best that she trust Shinoda's judgement on this; after all, if it wasn't for him, she probably would have died in G-Chases years ago. She just nodded.
"Don't worry," Shinoda said, "I won't let the CCI catch me so easily, and I know Io won't either. Somehow everything will turn out okay; we're usually pretty lucky with that sort of thing."
Yuki sighed. "Okay," she said, "I'll do what I can. I still have some contacts who may be able to help. If I find anything, I'll phone you tomorrow, before my flight leaves."
The rest of the time was spent finishing their drinks in silence. Afterwards, the two of them stood up and left the bar, back out into the street.
"Well..." Shinoda said, scratching the back of his head, "I guess this is goodbye again."
"Yeah..." Yuki said, rather awkwardly. She hated the way her meetings with Shinoda were brief these days, but that seemed to be the nature of her job. She loved the travelling, but sometimes it was nice to just settle down and catch up on old times. The two of them looked at each other, almost longingly, for a minute. It seemed words failed them both. In the end, Yuki broke the ice with a small kiss on the lips. Both looked a little awkward afterwards, even though it was what both of them secretly wanted for so long.
"Good luck," she said, fearful, but still with a smile on her face. Shinoda looked back at her, forming a small, nervous smile of his own.
"For all our sakes..." he said.
Finally, the two of them parted ways, both heading back to their seperate hotels. As Shinoda headed back to his hotel room, he kept mentally kicking himself. Why couldn't he just bring himself to say what he wanted to say to her, what he had been feeling for her for the last seven years?! He supposed he didn't want to say anything too quickly. Perhaps, if they all made it through this - the CCI and Monster Zero's next attack - he'd tell her. He probably wouldn't get another chance after that.
***
Io had scolded her father when he returned from his meeting with Yuki. She'd wanted to meet her friend again. Io had known Yuki through much of her life, and had come to regard her as a second mother, so naturally she was not happy about Shinoda leaving her in bed. Shinoda figured this was a no-win situation; she would have been cranky if he'd woken her up anyway, especially if she had jet-lag. The rest of that day had passed quietly, Shinoda preparing to pack a few things in case they had to travel far to Katsura's residence. He couldn't see how it was too far away from the Utah Foundation's main offices, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
At about midday the next day, Shinoda received the phone call he'd been waiting for from Yuki. There was a lot of noise in the background while she spoke; Shinoda assumed she was already at the airport.
"Yuki!" Shinoda said, his spirits starting to lift, "Did you have any luck?"
"Yes," Yuki said, speaking up slightly due to the noise in her area, "I spoke to a few contacts, and got the address for your Dr. Yugami! Have you got a pen and paper handy?"
"Just a second..." Shinoda said, reaching for some of the hotel's complimentary notepaper and a pen from the bedside table. He leaned against the table, ready to write. "Okay, go ahead."
"It's 361 South Auckland Drive, Provo," Yuki said, Shinoda noting it all down on the notepaper. "Don't worry about how far it is; it's just a couple of hours on the bus from Salt Lake."
"Anything about Alan?" Shinoda asked, tentatively.
"Nothing, I'm afraid," Yuki replied sadly. "Alan really doesn't want to be found, there's no trace of him anywhere. I suppose that's a good thing, in a way, it means the CCI isn't on to him yet."
"That's a relief," Shinoda said, sighing.
"Anyway, I've got to go," Yuki said, "My flight's just been announced. Sorry I couldn't be of any more help."
"Don't worry about it," Shinoda said reassuringly, "You've done more than enough for me right now. Thanks for everything."
"Don't mention it," Yuki said, "Hope everything goes well for you guys. Tell Io I said hi. Sayonara!"
"Sayonara," Shinoda said quietly. With that, he hung up, figuring it best that he not be held responsible for her missing her flight.
"Was that Yuki?" Io asked, rather crossly, "You could have let me say hi to her!"
"Well, she says hi to you anyway," Shinoda shrugged. It didn't sound like there had been a lot of time for extended conversation. Besides, now that they knew Katsura's address, they had a job to do, the sooner the better. Io only sighed; she'd wanted to speak to Yuki, and it annoyed her that her father seemed to be rushing everything?
"We'd better go see if we can catch the bus now," Shinoda said, starting towards the door. He was at it when he suddenly fumbled all over his jacket.
"Oh, damn!" he exclaimed, "I forgot the-"
"I've got them," Io said matter-of-factly. Shinoda had forgotten the paper with the address, not to mention his Japanese-English dictionary, as if that had been any use, and the parcel with the bio-syntech wrapped inside. He had been in such an excited state, longing to go, he'd forgotten the lot.
"I'll hold onto them," Io said, tucking them all inside her jacket, "You'll only forget them otherwise."
Shinoda wondered what sort of teenager Io was going to become, if she was already sassing at him. Then again, he began to wonder if he was going senile already. He decided to let Io hold onto everything anyway. It was probably for the best, in case something happened.
With that in mind, the two of them set out through the city to the bus station. Shinoda hoped that his vague grasp of English would be enough to get them on the right bus; they could end up riding to Mexico for all he knew. He wished Yuki could have stayed just one day longer.
As they passed a police patrol car parked by the busy street, Shinoda suddenly heard his mobile ringing again. He wondered who would possibly be phoning right now. He secretly hoped Yuki's flight had been delayed, and she had to stay with them longer. He pulled out his phone and answered, he and Io stopping while he answered.
"Moshi-moshi?" he answered.
"Shinoda..." Miyasaka's voice answered. Miyasaka's tone instantly had Shinoda worried. He sounded faint, like he had received a horrible shock. Shinoda had the feeling he was about to receive the same shock.
"Miyasaka?" he asked, "What's wrong?"
"I..." it sounded like Miyasaka was lost for words, "I made some inquiries, and now I have grave news... Katagiri's onto you. He's followed you out to Salt Lake City!"
Shinoda gasped. He didn't tell Miyasaka about this trip, so Katagiri couldn't possibly have found out about it from Miyasaka. He must have found something from his raid on the GPN's offices that linked Alan, and the CCI raid, to them. He thought back to the drive to the airport, but he hadn't noticed anybody following them. If they were, they had been experts.
"Shinoda, I can't believe you'd jeopardise Alan's safety by doing this!" Miyasaka exclaimed. Shinoda reasoned that he had to be speaking into his mobile to be talking openly about Alan. "However, now's not the time for arguments. Katagiri wants you arrested for the CCI raid, and wants to find out where Alan is from you!"
"I don't know where he is, Miyasaka!" Shinoda answered, honestly, but Miyasaka quickly rebutted him.
"Do you think Katagiri will believe you?" he replied. "Prime Minister Ifume wants Alan alive; he wants to use him in the Organiser G-1 project again, with the other mutants. We know what Katagiri's like though; he won't follow those orders! He'll do whatever's necessary to cover up the truth of what really happened here!"
"Oh God..." Shinoda breathed. The one comforting thought he had was that they didn't know where Alan was, if they wanted to find out from Shinoda. Then another worrying thought came to mind. "Even if we find Alan, they'll still try to use the other mutants. What do we do?"
"Don't worry, Shinoda," Miyasaka said, his tone becoming more resolute. "I'll terminate the other mutants, and spread the word about the project."
"What?!" Shinoda said, shocked, "But that'll mean you'll-"
"I know..." Miyasaka said, sounding like he was regretting what he was saying, but still determined to proceed. "However, nobody deserves to be treated like those people did. It's better that they sleep, before they can be used to harm others. Everyone has the right to know what happened, of the mistakes we made."
He paused here for a moment, Shinoda was shocked into silence that his friend was willing to risk so much for them, even after he had openly said he could not do anything out of fear of what would happen to his family.
"It's the least I can do," Miyasaka continued. "I should never have let this project go ahead; now I'll end it and even the score."
"Miyasaka..." Shinoda said, but it seemed any other words he had planned died in his throat.
"Find Alan at all costs," Miyasaka said, determinedly."I'll give the order to terminate the other mutants now. After that there's no turning back-"
It was then that a muffled yell was heard, a sound of scrabbling, then a sudden loud thud, as if the phone had just been dropped. Shinoda could hear Miyasaka give a muffled yell, before being silenced again. Then the line went dead.
"Moshi-moshi?!" Shinoda panicked, with no idea of what had happened to Miyasaka. "Moshi-moshi?!"
"Papa?" Io asked, now becoming agitated, "What is it? What's wrong?!"
"Shiro Miyasaka has been relieved of duty," a cold, calculating voice said from behind them.
As Shhinoda and Io turned, they noticed Mitsuo Katagiri stood behind them, with two other CCI officers clad in black suits just behind him. Katagiri was still holding his mobile to his ear, but hung up as he approached Shinoda and Io.
"Prime Minister Ifume notified me of Miyasaka's call," he explained, his voice still full of cold indifference. "I gave the order. He is now under arrest for causing a breach of national security."
Shinoda's eyes narrowed. He had never liked Katagiri, but now, after everything he'd heard about what the man had done, his emotions had changed. He now hated Katagiri, hated every part of him, hated him for everything he had done.
"How long as it been, Dr. Shinoda?" Katagiri asked, "Five years?"
"Not long enough for me," Shinoda replied, pure venom in his voice. "It's not enough that you go to such lengths to destroy Gojira, now you're trying to destroy peoples' lives as well?!"
"Gojira has already destroyed many lives," Katagiri replied coldly, "I'm only doing what's best for my country and its people. If that means I have to silence a leak, then so be it."
"I have no idea what you're babbling about!" Shinoda said, angrily. Several people in the street looked at them, but since they were speaking in Japanese none of them knew what was happening, so they passed by. "Do you honestly think I'd want to get involved in anything you do?!"
"Then why would Miyasaka ask you about three confidential files that went missing from our cabinets?" Katagiri replied, smirking. "I know things in the CCI that not even Miyasaka is aware of. I found out about your connection to the theft. Even if you didn't physically take them, I'll soon find out from you who did. Maybe I'll even find something to connect your new-found friends Alan Tyler and Kiryuu Mekagojira to it."
"I still don't follow you!" Shinoda replied, "I really don't know anything about them!" Katagiri's eyes narrowed; he knew full well Shinoda was lying. He knew Shinoda knew something about what had happened last month, and he wanted to know what.
"Unacceptable!" Katagiri said firmly, "How can you deny it? We now have evidence connecting both you and Miyasaka to the theft, and we know Kiryuu disrupted our systems. Who else could have done it? The fact that your friend Mr. Tyler is in hiding surely shows he now knows what he is, doesn't it? We know you've been in contact with him, so no doubt you both had a few words about it." He gave an awful, self-satisfied smirk. "We've begun to piece it together, Dr. Shinoda. We're sure you'll be willing to tell us everything, with the right questions. Besides," he added, his eyes moving towards Io. "If you fail to co-operate, Io's life will be over, once everyone finds out that she is the daughter of a traitor and a terrorist."
Shinoda snarled, launching straight at Katagiri with a fist raised.
"You son of a-!" he exclaimed, but he was cut short by Katagiri's goons, who stepped in front of Katagiri. One of them landed a sucker punch to Shinoda's midsection. Shinoda keeled over, falling to his knees, clutching his waist and gasping for breath.
Io screamed, seeing what was happening to her father, and took the only course of action that seemed viable to her; she ran. She ran as fast as she could away from the ensuing scene. She didn't dare turn around; she could hear Katagiri shouting "Get her!" She heard several other people shout, one of them calling "Officer!" in English. Seemed the goons were pushing people aside in their efforts to get to Io.
Shinoda stared after Io, hoping and praying that she'd escape. He feared that goon was going to catch up to her...
"Freeze!" somebody shouted, and the click of a pistol was heard. A police officer - the owner of the patrol car nearby - had returned to the commotion, and was now pointing his Colt Single Action Army at the goons. Both of them raised their hands in the air and stepped back towards Katagiri, who turned to the officer.
"Officer," Katagiri said, in clear English. Katagiri had to deal with foreign ambassadors all the time, so he would have had to learn English. Shinoda mentally kicked himself for not seeing this coming.
"I'm Mitsuo Katagiri," he continued, "CEO of the Japanese Crisis Control Intelligence agency."
"Oh yeah?" the policeman replied skeptically, "Show me some ID."
"As you wish," Katagiri obliged, pulling out his CCI ID card, and a blue piece of paper, handing both to the officer. The cop took both, still keeping his gun trained on Katagiri.
"This man," Katagiri continued, pointing at the wounded Shinoda, "is a suspect in a terrorist investigation. You'll find that the blue paper is a warrant for his arrest. His daughter has just run off; we hope to find her. It isn't safe for a child to be by themselves in such a large city."
The officer studied the documents. Much of them had been written in Japanese, though it seemed Ifume had provided translations with the documents. He pocketed both documents and holstered his gun.
"You can check directly with my superior," Katagiri continued, "The phone number's on the warrant, as well as a contact number you can use when you're finished with your enquiries."
"Fine," the officer replied, still eyeing them suspiciously. "We'll check all of this back at headquarters. You can take your suspect, but don't anybody think about leaving town until we clear you."
With that, the officer left in his patrol car. Katagiri sighed. That had been too close, but he saw no reason to worry. Surely Kiryuu had better things to do than look through somebody's police records; he'd be preparing himself for Monster Zero's return. Still he knew he would have to be extra careful from now on. Shinoda's little outburst had cost them greatly. Now Io was gone, their bargaining chip missing. They would have to make every effort to recover her. For now, he stood over Shinoda, the two goons pulling him to his feet.
"Bastard..." Shinoda muttered. Afterwards, he kept muttering "She escaped... she escaped..."
"Don't worry," Katagiri said, in a falsely concerned voice. "We'll find her soon enough. After all, I meant what I said; it's too dangerous for a child to be all on her own, especially with a possibly dangerous human Gojira running around."
Shinoda shook his head. Katagiri didn't understand a thing. He was sure that Alan would never do anything to hurt Io. Then again, if the mutations had progressed while he had been gone there was no telling what he would do.
"Let's go," Katagiri ordered his goons.
"Kyokai," the two suit-clad officers responded, dragging Shinoda over to their dark car. Pushing Shinoda into the back seat, one of the goons sat next to him, making sure he couldn't run. The other officer drove, while Katagiri was in the passenger seat. Katagiri knew they were close now to getting all the evidence they needed. All they needed now was Shinoda's daughter; a girl who knew too much. Legally, he could not arrest Io, but he could ensure she could never see her father again. He knew that would be suitable punishment for her. It seemed to him that Shinoda had not been a great disciplinarian; it looked like he, Katagiri, would have to make up for it.
Shinoda meanwhile could only think of Io, hoping against hope that she would get somewhere safe.