Chapter 9
Kaiji did not know what he was looking for, but his gut-feeling was telling him something. When he thought about the name Kyoko, he was trying to come up with all the different possibilities, but ultimately his ideas were so outrageous he started convincing himself that he was just acting crazy. What could he possibly be getting at with this? The idea that was tugging at him the most was that not only is Dr. Kay Sakura not who she says she is, but also that she had a prior relationship with Homura. It was so far-fetched, though, that he could not quite make himself believe it. Still, that first meeting between Homura and Kay was bothering him. Something just did not seem right.
It was not just him who thought something was amiss either; Endou was the first to say something about it. Kaiji didn't necessarily like Endou, but he could not deny the man's intelligence. Professionally, Kaiji had nothing but respect for him, even though their recent conversations started to give him a few doubts about Endou's character.
He scoured the internet, and it turned out Kyoko Sakura was a fairly common name. There were dozens of matches in home listings throughout Japan, he found a C-list celebratory of the same name, and it was also the name of an anime character (from a children's show called Magical Molly). He tried just searching the name Kyoko by itself, and the first few results were for baby name websites. The name Kyoko apparently meant "girl of the city" Well, Kay Sakura was apparently from Tokyo so there was a small connection there, but Kaiji did not think that it actually amounted to anything. That thought was just his tired mind grasping at straws.
He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, then looked at the time: 03:07 am. "This is ridiculous." he told himself. He needed to go home. He had a wife and son there, and he knew it was not right for him to stay at work so late if it was not necessary. He had the next couple days off, and he was glad for that because he needed some time to clear his head.
Then, he heard a clicking sound and his eyes shot back to the computer screen. He was only looking away for a few seconds while he rubbed his eyes, but in that time the Internet browser closed and a blank word document opened. That's strange, he thought to himself, but shrugged it off, thinking maybe the computer was just glitching out on him. He reached for the mouse, but suddenly the mouse slid away from his hand as if something had pulled on it.
He felt a sudden cold chill run down his back and it was enough to force him to jump out of his seat. The backs of his legs pushed the wheeled computer chair out from under him and caused it to glide across the room until it crashed against the parallel row of computers behind him.
He rubbed his eyes again, and shook his head, taking another look at the clock. Kaiji was a rational man, and did not have one superstitious bone in his body. He thought he just saw the mouse move on its own, but knew that was not possible. It was getting extremely late, and he had been feeling quite stressed lately. He figured he had to have just imagined it. He reached for the mouse again so that he could shut the computer down and go home for the night. This time, something else stopped him.
There was a single click from the keyboard and the letter "F" appeared on the screen. He paused and stared. It was a glitch, it had to be a glitch. Then another click: "I" Another: "N" There was at least a two second pause between each click of the keyboard, and he watched with widening eyes. It could not be a computer glitch, or even a hacker, he could see the keys actually pressing own as each letter was spelled out. It was as if an invisible hand was there slowly typing out a message. "FIND HER"
"F-find her?" Kaiji read out loud. This must be a dream, or a hallucination, he thought, he had to get home.
The typing started again, each keystroke as slow as before. K - Y - O - K - O - - S - A - K - U - R - A.
"Kyoko Sakura..." Kaiji whispered. Part of him wanted to believe he really was hallucinating, but that part of himself was not exactly winning out. "What is this?" He looked around the computer lab. "Is someone here?"
Then the mouse moved, and copied the text, then started pasting it over and over again.
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
KYOKO SAKURA
"This is crazy, I'm losing my mind!" he declared to himself as he snatched the mouse and closed the word document. "If someone is playing a prank on me somehow, this isn't funny." he said to the empty room, and his eyes darted around suspiciously. It was not just that the letters appeared on the screen, there were plenty of explanations for how that could happen. The fact that he saw the actual keys press down is what was disturbing him so deeply. Not to mention the mouse moving on its own.
Then, he felt that cold chill run through him, and he heard a voice. It felt almost as if someone had whispered directly into his ear... but, that was not quite right. It was more like someone had spoken directly into his mind. It was a small feminine voice that said: "You're not crazy."
It startled him, and he turned around, swinging a fist through the air behind himself, but not connecting with anything. He stumbled, then looked back to the computer. A new word had been typed, this time in the address bar of the browser: "cult"
"Cult?"
"Find her." The whispering voice said to him once again, once again joined by that feeling of coldness. It was not an ordinary chill either, it felt more like some kind of force had swept across him and crawled under his skin. The chilling sensation came from the very core of his body.
He was rational, and he knew there was no way the things that he was experiencing right now were real. He decided he had to stop acknowledging these things, and go home and get some rest. He quickly grabbed his coat off the back of the computer chair and started pulling it on. He moved casually, he was not going to freak out and run away from his own delusion; knowing that only would only give it credibility. He was just going to put his coat on, walk out of the lab, and go home like a normal mentally sound human being. Because this was crazy, and he knew he was being crazy.
He had to ignore the cold sensation as it drifted through his body once again and he watched the mouse move and copy the word "cult" It started pasting it over and over again in the address bar as it had done for "Kyoko Sakura"
cultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcultcult
Then, the keyboard suddenly lifted up, and tore away from the computer, pulling its wire free from the terminal. Kaiji gasped and watched as the keyboard just hovered in the air, now losing what was left of his rationality that this was just a delusion. The keyboard then flew across the room and smashed against the wall as if someone had thrown it in a violent rage. The keys flew off of it and scattered across the floor, but Kaiji's legs were already moving as he ran for the exit in a blind panic.
The cold sensation ran through his body more powerfully than it ever had before, and he felt the words dance across his consciousness to the tune of that small female voice, except now it was a tad more aggressive and commanding "FIND HER! KYOKO SAKURA! CULT! FIND HER!" Kaiji screamed, covering his hands over his ears as he ran out of the computer room.
Madoka shifted around on the futon in Mami's living room, unable to force herself to sleep. With a sigh, she eventually opened her eyes and looked around, realizing that she was already a couple of hours into a sleepless night. She looked towards the computer room and saw a soft light coming through the doorway, and she could faintly hear the soft clicking of keys.
Leiko's still awake?
Deciding she could not get to sleep anyway, she went to go see what Leiko was doing. She was sitting amidst the glow of the computer screen in an otherwise dark room, just clicking away as she always did. "You're still awake?" Madoka asked cautiously, as she approached her, being careful not to startle her. It was one of the first times she was successful at it.
Leiko's head turned and she nodded. "Yes, I'm just going over some emails from the lab's staff. I'm trying to get a general idea of where their thinking is at... I'm surprised to see you are still awake as well."
"Yeah…" Madoka said, "I can't sleep… I don't know, guess I'm feeling a bit anxious is all…"
Leiko gave her a dismissive nod, not breaking her concentration from the screen for more than a second. Madoka continued to watch as those usual foreign symbols zipped by the screen. Madoka had tried to ask about those symbols before, and how exactly Leiko's powers worked, but she never got an answer. All the same, she decided to try again.
"How are you able to understand what those symbols say?"
"I don't."
"Oh… um…" Madoka was trying to figure out if Leiko was just being sarcastic or something.
Leiko then sighed and started explaining: "They don't look the same for me as they do for you. As they appear to you, it would be impossible for you or anyone else to make any sort of reason out of it."
Madoka's eyes widened, partly by how interesting of a concept that was, and partly because she could not believe Leiko had actually given her a real answer. Although, it still did not make much sense to her. "They look different to you? Well, what does it look like?"
"It would be impossible to try to explain… like explaining color to a blind person, or sound to someone who is deaf, or envisioning an object with four dimensions. But, as far as I know my power makes me the only person in the world who can make sense of what is actually on this screen. I guess you could say I'm looking at data in its purest form, even purer than binary code. I can't explain it, what it looks like, or why I understand it. I just do. For anyone else it would be like a word processor that's been forced to open a media file. It can technically be done, but the data that is returned will not make any sense. That's what you are seeing. Get it?"
"Um… Kind of?" Madoka grinned, she thought she understood, though the concept was a bit mind boggling.
Leiko nodded and continued typing.
"Um... do you think Homura's going to be alright?" Madoka asked.
Leiko shrugged. "If we can't get her out, then no. She doesn't have any means of escape herself, especially if they are willing to go to the extreme of sacrificing the lives of their own employees in order to keep her there. So we had better hope this plan with the witch's barrier works. If we try it and it fails, things are probably going to get even worse for her."
"It's going to work, though, right?"
"How should I know? It feels like a bit of a hail-mary, but it's the best we've got."
Madoka nodded. "Y-you know, Leiko. What you said before, that you are just doing all this for your own self interest... you didn't really mean that, right? I-I mean, even though you say that, you don't really seem like that kind of person to me."
Leiko turned to her and adjusted her glasses. "I don't know how you want me to respond. If there wasn't anything in it for me, then no, I wouldn't be doing any of this. It's a risk, as I said before. I've done my part in covering my own tracks, but there's still plenty of things that could go wrong." She turned back to her computer and started clicking away again, the glow of the computer screen turning her glasses into two white circles that hid the upper half of her face. "I'm more confident in my hacking abilities than my witch-fighting abilities, and that's the only reason I'm here right now. If I were able to get GriefSeeds on my own, I wouldn't have any need to be a part of this team."
Madoka watched Leiko for a while, and thought there is no way she could really be as cold as she acted. Madoka thought about what Leiko had said about her wish earlier. She said that someone had done something really bad to her, and she needed a wish to undo it. Madoka doubted that Leiko would ever divulge whatever that bad thing was, but Madoka had a feeling that whatever it was, it was to blame for Leiko's coldness.
"Leiko?" Madoka asked.
"Hm?"
Madoka fists tightened at the sides of her pyjamas as she gathered her resolve, then she quickly shouted out: "I'm your friend! Okay? Even if you don't open up to me, and even if you say mean things I don't care! There are bad people in the world, but you're not one of them, and you don't have to be afraid of getting close to people because there's lots of good people out there too!"
Leiko turned, her eye's already fixed into that condescending look she tends to get. She was prepared to make some cold, factual, and belittling response towards what Madoka had just said. But, by the time her head had turned, Madoka was already disappearing through the doorway on the other side of the room. Leiko stopped, and just stared at the now-empty room, thinking it over. Eventually she shook her head and smirked to herself, but the smirk soon faded back into a frown and her fingers went back to gliding across the keyboard.
Madoka went out onto the balcony to be alone for a few minutes. She stared out over the horizon and watched the little stars of light that spotted the tall dark silhouettes of buildings which made up the cityscape. She hoped the cold night air would help settle her nerves and help her get to sleep.
She could not stop worrying about Homura. Over the last couple weeks she was under the illusion that Homura's situation was not really that bad, and that they would be able to free her in no time. After seeing that video, however, and seeing what Homura's confinement was actually doing to her, that illusion had been shattered, and Madoka saw the situation for how bad it actually was.
Then, she heard a voice: "It's useless, you know."
Her vision shifted to the other side of the balcony, where she saw two glowing red orbs sitting atop the railing. "Oh... it's you."
Kyubey walked along the railing, his small white feet moving with the calculated precision of a tightrope walker until he stopped a few feet away from Madoka. Then, he sat back on his haunches and stared up at her. "Don't you realize how illogical all of this is? Even if Homura does escape, it's not like she can just go back to her life the way it was. They already know who she is, and if she escapes the first thing they are going to do is go after the people who are close to her. Don't you realize your best course of action is to just forget about Homura Akemi?"
"Why don't you just leave me alone?" Madoka said with a dismissive voice, and she continued to gaze sadly over the horizon. Kyubey's head turned to the side slightly, and he continued to stare at her with his cordial little smile. "I don't want to talk to you. You don't care about any of us. If you did, the least you could do is help us get messages back and forth to Homura so Kyoko wouldn't have to take such a big risk."
"You're right, it would be pretty easy for me to do that. There would be no reason for it, though. Just like I said before, this whole mission is not only destined for failure, there's completely no profit in it. Personally, I was hoping for Homura to just hatch into a witch herself while she was down there. With all of those humans who would be trapped with her, just imagine how much energy she would be able to generate!"
Madoka turned away, not wanting to listen to him. She was not the type for violent impulses, but at that moment she wouldn't mind taking Homura's approach to dealing with the little weasel and just blowing his furry little head off.
"Moreover, you all are putting a lot of trust into someone whom you barely know. Are you sure you can trust her?"
"Leiko?" Madoka asked, to verify that's what he was talking about.
"If things really do start to go downhill, she holds all the cards, doesn't she? She could easily put the attention on the rest of you while making herself disappear. She said herself that she is only out for her own self-interest. If they figure out what your group has been up to, do you really expect her to stay loyal?"
"She's my friend, okay? And yes, I do trust her. Do you have a problem with that?"
Kyubey shook his head. "You humans really do fascinate me. You are able to base your actions off of such illogical and variable concepts like friendship."
"If this is all you came over here to talk to me about, why don't you just go?"
"I'm merely trying to point out how hopeless all of this is. The chance of actually getting Homura out is very slim, and you are all taking a huge risk by trying. But of course, there is another way." His little red eyes glistened, and Madoka stared back at him. "If you want, you have the power to put an end to all of this right here and right now, and none of your friends would have to be in danger anymore. You could make it so that not only Homura was free, but you could make it so they completely forgot about her existence. Or, you could wish for something else. It's completely up to you. You have so much potential, I can guarantee that anything you asked for would come true."
"I-I'm not making a contract with you! I promised Homura I wouldn't. Besides, I trust my friends, and no matter what you say, we are going to be able to help her!"
"Then I guess it can't be helped. I thought I would at least try." He turned and started walking back to the far side of the railing. "If you do end up changing your mind, just let me know." His head turned back for just a moment and his red eyes peered at her through the darkness. "I'll be waiting." He then jumped off of the balcony and disappeared.
When Madoka went back inside, the kitchen light was on. Leiko was inside, standing by the stove and just starting to take a teapot off of the burner. Madoka did not say anything at first, but watched as she poured the tea into two cups. Did she make that for me?
Madoka went inside with a heavy step so that she would be heard. Leiko turned towards her and flinched, then quickly grabbed one of the tea cups and held it out to her. "Here." she said. "I made it with valerian root. You said you were having trouble sleeping, right? Well, it helps."
Madoka took the cup from her and smiled. "Thank you."
Leiko's eyes shifted away nervously and she coughed into her hand. "Valerian is either derived from the personal name Valaria or the Latin verb valere, meaning "worth" The earliest known records of its use go all the way back to ancient Greece where it was described in Hippocrates' journal. The eighteenth-century physician Galen prescribed it as a cure for insomnia. It's been shown to relieve anxiety and cause drowsiness, proven as a safe non-habit-forming sleep aid." Leiko coughed into her hand once again as Madoka just stared at her through her lengthy text-book explanation. "As a side note, it also contains the chemical 'actinide' which is more prominently known to be found in catnip, therefore making valerian root itself an effective cat attractant..." Leiko blushed and her voice started trailing off. "Actinide is not known to have any... effects on... humans..." Her eyes shifted downward and she cleared her throat, then lifted her hand up to readjust her glasses.
Madoka gave her a bright smile and laughed, "You sure do know a lot of random stuff don't you?"
"Well... I read a lot. Anyway, that will help you sleep." Leiko picked up her own cup and started walking away.
"Hang on." Madoka said. "Why don't you sit with me for a little while?"
"Well, I..." Madoka did not really give her an option, as she grabbed onto her hand and led her over to the dining room table.
"Alright, it's ten o'clock, I can't let you sleep anymore!" Keiji looked up groggily as his wife pulled the covers off of him. "Late night at the office again? I didn't hear you come in last night."
"Yeah..." he said as he rubbed his eyes and started reaching for his glasses over on the nightstand. "I didn't get in until around five." He pulled his wife closer as she leaned in for a kiss.
"I thought you said you weren't going to have to do that anymore."
"Yeah, well something came up..." He yawned. "Actually, I kind of got caught up in something, is what I should say." His wife had gotten used to his rather vague explanations regarding anything related to his work. She understood that a lot of what he worked on was meant to be top secret, not even discussed with close family members, but she at least knew it was military-related.
"Anyway, don't forget. You told Makoto you would take him to his ballgame."
"Oh, right... what time was that again?" He got up and went over to the dresser to start picking out his clothes.
"He needs to be on the field at noon. Oh, and I just finished cooking breakfast, it's on the table already."
Kaiji finished dressing and after his wife left the room he went for his cellphone and dialed a number. It rang for a while before picking up the voice mail: "You've reached detective Ishida Tashikowara. I'm not available at the moment, but please leave your name, number, and a brief message." ~beeeeep
"Hey bro, it's me. Sorry I missed the party last weekend. Busy at the office, you know how it is... Hey listen, I need you to look into something for me. It might not be anything too important, but get back to me when you can. Thanks." He flipped his phone closed, and with that taken care of he proceeded down to the kitchen. His wife and son were both already seated at the table.
"Key kiddo." Kaiji said, patting his son on the head as he walked past. He went right for the coffee maker on the kitchen counter which already had a fresh pot sitting inside it.
"Morning daddy! Guess what!" Makoto said.
"What!" Kaiji said back, mildly feigning enough excitement to match his son's.
"Coach says he's going to let me pitch the last three innings. You're going to be there, right?"
"Yup," Kaiji said as he sat down, "I've got the entire day off." and he gave his son a wink.
Kaiji was never much of a sportsman himself. When he was his son's age, he tended to be the kid who got picked last for teams in gymnastics class. Makoto was the complete opposite, though. He was still young enough that Kaiji could help him practise (though work often got in the way of that), but he imagined once Makoto hit his teen years he likely would not be able to keep up anymore either way. That is where uncle Ishida would come in; he was always the athlete of the family but did not have any sons of his own. He just had two daughters, the younger of whom was at least somewhat of a tomboy herself and every bit as interested in sports as Makoto was.
After breakfast, Kaiji figured he had some time to spend on the research he did not finish last night. He still did not know what Kyoko could mean, but a few ideas were creeping up on him which he wanted to look into. Thinking back on what had happened with the keyboard, he had partially managed to convince himself he dreamed the whole incident. The stress had just gotten to him is all. The moral dilemma related to what his work entailed, and the long hours had caused him to have a minor hallucination. What else could it have been? A ghost?
Though, another part of him reminded himself that his notions of what was possible in the world had been drastically shifted at the discovery of Homura's abilities. If a girl who could teleport, see into the future, and instantly tear a room apart was possible, then why not ghosts? Besides, hallucination or no, two things had come out of it. The verification that "Kyoko" Sakura might actually mean something, and the word "cult"
He opened up a search engine and typed "Kyoko Sakura cult" just to see what would come up. At first, nothing notable. The first five results were for a brand of pens that bore the name "Sakura" and were sold by a company called Cult Pens.
Kaiji then thought for a moment how to narrow down the search. He decided to try "Sakura cult Mitakihara" The first few results were for those same Sakura pens, but then he noticed an old news headline posted in the Mitakihara Daily that read: "Kazamino cult leader 'Father Sakura' found dead with wife and daughter"
Kaiji clicked the link and started reading. He vaguely remembered hearing about this a couple of years ago, but the story had slipped from his mind over the years. Kazamino was a neighboring city to Mitakihara, so the story of Father Sakura's church and the preacher's ultimate plunge into insanity was a popular local news story for a short time.
The phenomenon happened a couple years back, when out of nowhere Father Sakura, who was just an ordinary preacher, managed to amass a great following seemingly overnight. This kind of thing was not entirely unheard of, for he was not the first crazed preacher in the world to gather a cult following and he certainly would not be the last.
The thing that was particularly interesting about this case, however, is that it did not fit the usual scenario. First of all, it usually takes time for one of these false prophets to gather their following, but in the case of Father Sakura it happened overnight. Furthermore, the leaders of these cults usually gain followers by preaching outrageous and often violent ideas. In this case, as far as any investigators could tell, his teachings were rather simple: be kind to your fellow man; be honest and have integrity; do not turn on someone over a simple difference in beliefs.
In the end, the situation ultimately resolved itself and the file was closed, when the preacher killed himself along with his wife and youngest daughter. According to the news article, apparently he had an older daughter who somehow managed to escape her crazed father's wrath. Kaiji searched around for a while, trying to find her name, but for the most part no sources gave the name of either of the two daughters. He did find one link that named the younger daughter who had been killed "Momo" but there was nothing else on this older daughter other than the fact that she was still alive and should be around fourteen or fifteen years old.
What connection could all this have to Kay, though? He suddenly laughed at himself. None, of course. It was not like a name like "Sakura" was very uncommon. Besides, Kay Sakura was from Tokyo, which was a good distance away from Kazamino, and, based on her resume and work history, she had not come anywhere near this side of Japan even once before taking the assignment with Test Subject One...
He thought about it... Tokyo was a good distance from Kazamino. What was not a good distance from Kazamino, however, was Mitakihara Town: where Homura lived. Not only that, it seemed that Father Sakura's eldest daughter was right around the same age as Homura… Therefore, it was possible that...
His phone suddenly started ringing, snapping him out of his thoughts. It was Ishida.
"Ishida, good morning." Kaiji said, holding the phone up against his ear.
"Hey Kaiji, just got your message." Ishida had a thick voice to match his well built stature. It was kind of funny, Kaiji was actually the older brother, but if one was to see the two of them standing side-by-side one would guess the opposite. Kaiji was a bit taller but rather thin. Hisbrother may have stood a few inches shorter than him but he was built like an ox and had a much harder and matured face. Not only that, Ishida had two kids, the older having two years on Makoto, and his younger tomboy daughter was a few months behind him.
"Don't worry about the party, I know how busy your big government research job keeps you and all that." Ishida laughed. "Anyway, you said you needed something? What is it?"
"This might sound kind of weird, but I was wondering if you knew anything about the Kazamino Cult."
"Kazamino Cult? Oh, you're talking about that preacher who out of nowhere ended up with a huge following, then later went nuts and killed his family, right? Well, what about it?"
"I was curious about his family members… It's difficult to explain why exactly right now, but I'll tell you about it some time."
"You mean when we're not on the phone? Heh, sometimes I wonder what kind of stuff you're mixed up in. Anyway, if I recall correctly he had a wife and two daughters. When he went kablooey he killed his wife and the younger daughter. The older one wasn't home at the time but was found on the scene later."
"Do you know what her name was, by any chance?"
"Her name? No, I wouldn't know that. I wasn't actually on that case. It's just that it was high-profile enough that it got talked about around the station a lot, back when it all happened."
"Oh I see, I was just hoping you might, is all. I'm kind of grasping at straws over here to be honest with you."
"Hm, well bro, you got my interest piqued to say the least. Can't wait to hear what this is all about… Does it have something to do with your work?"
"Possibly, but probably not. Honestly, it's more of a passing curiosity than anything."
"Oh, actually I just remembered something about Father Sakura's daughter. She ended up going missing. She was under protective custody, but somehow managed to get away from the officers who were assigned to her. Anyway, she ran away and disappeared completely on that same night. I only remember this because there was a missing person's report out on her for a while… actually… if you want her name I can probably get it."
"Sure, if it's not too much trouble."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm at the station right now so it's no problem. Just a quick search, she should still be listed in the system somewhere. Last name Sakura, right?"
"You got it."
Kaiji waited as he heard his brother clicking around. "Alright, not sure if one of them is her, but I got three missing female Sakuras between ages twelve and fifteen. We've got a Fuja Sakura, a Yuki Sakura, and a Misato Sakura."
"Try just doing a full system search for a Kyoko Sakura, and narrow the age to fourteen to fifteen."
"Hu? Kyoko Sakura? Where did you get that from? Eh, anyway, Hang on a sec… Nope, nothing on record for a Kyoko Sakura, sorry bro…"
"Oh, okay. Well, thanks for trying." Kaiji said, a bit disappointed that it seemed he still was not going to get his answers.
"Oh wait, what the hell am I thinking. Just hold on a minute, let me check something else real quick." Kaiji waited a couple minutes while his brother clicked around. "Alright, looks like I found your mystery girl. It was Misato Sakura."
"Misato Sakura? That's the name of the preachers oldest daughter? Are you sure?"
"Yup, one hundred percent, looking at it right here. Her last known address matches father Sakura's. She escaped police custody after a double homicide and suicide at her place of residence, no known whereabouts after that point."
"Ishida, do one more thing. It's probably nothing, and I'm probably being crazy. But are there any paper files related to the Kazamino Cult incident?"
"What? Well, yeah, but they would be in Kazamino, they wouldn't be here in my precinct. Even if they were, do you have any idea how big a pain in the ass it would be to dig up a closed case like that from two years ago?"
Kaiji grinned to himself. "Well, I'm getting ready to be a pain in your ass then, because I need you to see if they can dig those files up and fax them over to you."
"Uh… Yeah, I don't know if…"
"Come on, pull some strings, I know you can do it… besides," Kaiji laughed, "you still owe me for helping you close that case a few months ago." Kaiji was referring to a time Ishida asked him to alter some test results which allowed Ishida to get a warrant to raid a known yakuza leader who had been managing to dance around the system and avoid the law.
Ishida let out a long sigh. "So, you're calling out the favor on something like this huh? I mean, I can do it, but it's not like the paper files are going to have anything that's not on here. Why don't I just print out the files I have on my computer and send them to you?"
"I need the original case files. Just do it for me, okay?"
"Alright fine, but we're even after this. And it's going to take a little while, I'll call you when I'm done."
"Send in Test Subject One." came Dr. Mono's voice over the intercom. Homura stood in one of their white hospital gowns with two unarmed guards standing at her sides. It seemed her enemy had learned their lesson about bringing weapons into her reach, although they at least still had tasers strapped to their sides. At least they had agreed to not try and restrain her, and Homura agreed not to cause them any trouble in return.
She never would admit it, or flat out ask for it, but she also wished she had her TV back, and the deal they gave before is that they would return her privileges if she cooperated with them. Well, soon enough it may not matter anymore. She had friends on the outside, and surely they were working on a plan to get her out. She had a few cards up her own sleeve as well, or more specifically, there were a few cards stored behind her shield. Her enemy did not know about that particular ability of hers yet, and she was careful to keep her trump card hidden.
When the metal door let out its beeps and hissed open, Homura stepped inside. When she realized the guards had not followed her in, she turned back to them with a raised eyebrow. They just stood there with a stationary posture, outside the doorway. "Staying outside this time, huh?" she said, then shrugged and turned back into the testing room. The metal door soon hissed and slid shut behind her.
She looked around the room she was in. There was a mirror on the far side which she knew had a group of researchers sitting behind it. The floor had four Xs made of tape which were positioned in the shape of a t. The cross of the t had a yellow and a green X, the longer side had a red and a blue X with a camera stationed at the far end.
On the left wall there was a table with a glass of water and a small pill bottle sitting atop it. Homura walked up to the table and looked at the bottle. It was unlabeled, but she shook it to verify that there were pills inside. She looked over to the window with a raised eyebrow.
"Those are daily supplements we would like you to start taking." said Dr. Mono's voice. "Your current living arrangements do not allow you any exposure to sunlight which can cause certain deficiencies which those supplements will make up for. You can go ahead and take one now."
"I don't think so." said Homura, and she set the small bottle back down on the table. Then she looked over at the mirror. "Now, what ridiculous tests do you have for me so I can get back to my room? Teleportation? Which X do you want me to start on?"
"We would like for you to take one of your supplements first."
Homura walked over to the yellow X and pointed to the green one. "You want me to teleport to the green one, correct?" There was a long silence during which Homura just stared at herself in the mirror. "Well?"
"If you would rather not take the supplements now, that is fine. But we will ask you to take them back to your room with you. You will need to start taking them once a day."
"If you say the word 'supplement' one more time I'm going to get pissed... I'm transforming now, so we can get this over with." She crossed her arms over her chest and started the transformation process.
The hospital gown started rippling as if a strong wind was blowing against it, then it started to tear away and dissipated into nothing as it tore away from her body. Her nude form stood surrounded in rainbow light for a very brief moment before a set of black ribbons appeared around her. They wrapped around her limbs and body before letting out a bright burst of light which left her standing in her magical girl attire.
"Homura, before teleporting would you please hold up your shield where it can easily be seen from the mirror."
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at herself in the mirror. She generally hated taking orders from these people, but she especially hated taking them from Dr. Mono. She wanted to turn down the request just to spite him. Besides that, she did not like giving them information on how her abilities worked… Well, the most important thing to keep secret was the existence of her SoulGem. The shield could even serve as a decent distraction, as they were likely to think the shield itself was the source of her power.
She lifted her forearm and showed her shield to the mirror. Her eyes narrowed even further with the hatred of obeying the request. Then, she let the gears spin and stopped time. She walked over to the green X, glancing at the camera lens as she crossed its path. She guessed it was a hyper-speed camera, and they were trying to catch any motion between the two points as she 'teleported' between them. If she thought there was actually any chance of the camera picking up her movement while time was stopped, she would have found a way to either go above it or below it in order to throw off their experiment. She doubted that was the case though, and thus did not bother with any of that.
When she reached the green X, she resumed time and faced the mirror once again.
"Thank you for being cooperative with us today." came Dr. Mono's voice.
"Yeah, no problem." Homura said dryly, then pointed over to the red X. "Red and blue now?"
"Please, if you would."
Homura walked over to the red X and stopped time. Then, unseen, she walked towards the camera which had the blue X on the floor right in front of it. Upon reaching the X she was tempted to grab the camera and smash it to pieces. She did not enjoy the fact that she was allowing herself to be so cooperative, and part of her wanted to give them a reminder that she was not some complacent little lab rat. At least she had those pills that she could continue refusing to take, which gave her at least some sense of control.
She resumed time then asked "Okay, is that all? Can I go back to my room now?"
"That is all for this room. We have a couple more tasks for you, however. Please go back to the door so the guards may escort you to the next room." Homura let out an irritated sigh and rolled her eyes as she turned back to the door. "Please take your supplements with you."
"There's no point, I'm never going to take any of them… do you really think I'm going to take anything you people give to me?"
"If you are worried about us using drugs on you, I can assure you that is not what our intentions are with those pills."
Homura did not respond, and instead just stood in front of the metal door, waiting for it to open. She left the pills on the table, untouched. After a couple minutes the door finally slid open, revealing the same two guards who were still standing behind it. One of them put a finger to his earpiece and seemed to be listening to something. He nodded, then walked past Homura, into the test room, and grabbed the pills off of the table.
The other guard said: "Right this way, Miss Akemi." while giving her a friendly smile as he stood to the side and gestured down the hall.
Homura brushed her hair to the side and strolled right past him.
