December 20th
Shizuka was at Rush Studios asking any clansmen if they were participating in the Secret Santa game for Ito Yukina's holiday party, but she was also there because she left her car at the company. Instead of taking the bullet train, Yayoi had dropped her off since she didn't want the King walking around in the cold and getting sick before Christmas.
She was wearing a light champagne blouse top with thick dark brown belts strapped over her shoulders and under her armpits, black leather gloves, a dark gray color on the underside, a medium gray business skirt with a black belt that held her guns on her lower back, black opaque tights and cream colored, ankle strapped high heels. Of course, she had her other pair of guns latched on the heels.
"Oh, I heard about this." Clansmen Kamiya Tsukina says to Shizuka. She was a short and cute girl with light pink hair that was always in high pigtails and hazel eyes. They were joined by a few other clansmen, interested in what the Iridescent King was up to. "Sure I'll join in, since it sounds fun."
"Ooh, is this for Yukina'chan's party? Count me in~" Another clansmen, Suzuki Nanako, asks, feeling excited. She was also a short but athletic girl with a dark brown bob hairstyle and hime-cut bangs, olive green eyes and rimless glasses.
"I'll have to pass this year. I'm heading out to my parents in Osaka tonight." Shinogi Ayana comments, a tall woman with flowy burgundy hair and eyes.
Shizuka was familiar with the girls as they usually work at the front desk at Rush Studios, so she often sees them when she comes in.
"Ah, is that so. I hope you have a safe trip then." Shizuka crosses off Ayana's name on the list. The next name was Kondo Yuriko, but she wasn't familiar with it, pausing for a moment to search for a face, but she couldn't, soon asking for help. "Do you know where I can find Kondo Yuriko?"
"Kondo-chan?" Tsukina contemplates for a short moment, figuring out what department she was in.
"Ah, she should be in the Opal Department like always. She's cooped up in there 24/7. I highly doubt she'll go to the party." Nanako waves a hand, gesturing to dismiss Yuriko's attendance to the party but Shizuka brushes it off.
"You don't know unless you ask. I'd love it if everyone could come after all." Shizuka beams, rendering the girls silent. Nanako felt regretful of what she said about Yuriko but kept her guilt to herself. "I'll be off then. Have a good day~"
"You too, Takahiro-san." The girls say in unison as she leaves.
She hums her favorite song, Fly Me to the Moon, as she heads over to the elevator and luckily, she catches the doors open and someone was inside, but they were beginning to close and she lets out a cry. The person inside hears her and quickly holds the door open for her at the right moment as she rushes in, surprised to see that it was Himuro Daisuke, the guy she took to the Looking Glass Shoppe.
"Oh! It's you." They both say at the same time and they laugh immediately afterwards.
"Himuro Daisuke" Shizuka speaks, "I thought you were assigned to All 4 One?" She presses a button to the next three floors above, noticing that Daisuke was heading to the floor above hers.
"It's nice to know you remember my name" He chuckles. "And I do, but I'm running an errand for a colleague and I'm delivering something for someone here." He says, showing her a portfolio that was holding manuscripts.
"Ah, I see now." She says, seeing the doors opening on her floor. "Well, you have a good day then. Happy holidays."
"You too, ma'am." He says as she steps out, turning right and a few people head into the elevator at the same time.
She was greeted by a few people, some were clansmen and others were ordinary employees, but she was still familiar of some faces. One employee asked if she needed anything and she explains she was looking for Kondo Yuriko. They take her to an office and she can feel a gloom in the air. When they walk in, the room felt stuffy and there were a few people hunched over a long table scribbling on paper. There was a woman in the corner, her back to us, paying no mind to her visitors.
"Ho? Interesting." Shizuka purrs a the sight, later thanking the employee for taking her to the office. "Now, which one of you is Kondo Yuriko?" she steps into the office and the woman in the corner slowly turns around.
She was a thin young woman around Shizuka's age with messy chocolate brown hair tied in a bun and tired brown eyes. She was wearing a doctors mask and she looked feverish and exhausted. Shizuka was drawn aback and she recalls a little bit of meeting the girl, but the memory was still blurry.
"Me...I'm Kondo Yuriko.*cough* *cough*" She speaks softly and Shizuka approaches her.
"Whoa you're not looking so bright." Shizuka approaches Yuriko who holds a hand up to stop her from getting closer.
"Oh no, please, Takahiro-san. I don't want you getting sick as well." She says, too sick to realize that the Iridescent King had forgotten who she was.
"If you wish." Shizuka says, "I'm assuming you won't be going to Ito Yukina-san's party then?"
"Not in this state. No." She answer, coughing a little and turns to her desk. She was coloring a picture, which looked nearly finished, and Shizuka remembers that Yuriko is one of Rush Studio's artists. She's probably running late on her work. Poor thing. Shizuka thought, sighing silently.
"I'd love to join but I have until early morning to turn in my project to Marketing, luckily this is the last page I need to color. After that, I plan on getting some rest." Yuriko explains as Shizuka crosses out her name on the list, putting 'sick' as a note.
"I understand, but I'm glad you're nearly finished with your work. You're doing great so far by the looks of it." Shizuka points out and Yuriko chuckles, coughing a little.
"Hearing that from you is really nice. Thank you. I won't let down the company." Shizuka could tell she was smiling even with her mask hiding it. She wishes her a good day and dismisses herself, checking the next list on the list and so forth.
It was nearly a quarter till 1 and Shizuka was more than halfway getting through the list meeting with her Clansmen, but many of them were not participating, which was understandable if they were heading out of the city to see family in another city or town but Shizuka felt a little sad. She planned on going out for lunch, deciding to send texts while she was at it.
"Hmmm, Sumika-kun hasn't returned from Glassvale Entertainment yet." Shizuka runs into three of her Clansmen, gossiping in one of the lounges, but none of them looked too happy about something.
Takeuchi Soma, a tall young man with spiky blonde hair and brown eyes. He was formerly a Red Clan member and has both the Red and Iridescent Aura. An animator at Rush Studios, a serious type of guy who was prideful in himself.
Fujita Toshiro, a short man with shaggy olive brown hair and green eyes who was also an animator. A nice and caring guy with a bit of humor.
Lastly, Shirakura Kanae, a small and cute girl with silky platinum blonde hair and magenta eyes who was interning at the company. She was a 1st year university student and was a bit clumsy but reliable. The three were already attending Yukina's party so she didn't need to interrogate them again.
"Is something wrong?" Shizuka asks the trio and they was surprised to see her.
"T-Takahiro-san." Kanae speaks, her eyes glowing as Shizuka smiles at the three.
"Er...N-Not really. We're just a bit worried about Sumika Shuhei." Toshiro laughs nervously.
"Eh~ Is that so?" Shizuka asks, still smiling, but placing a finger on her chin and looking up at the ceiling, "Sumika Shuhei, huh?" She wasn't familiar with the name nor was she able to put a face to it.
"Here. I have a picture of him." Kanae pulls up an image of Shuhei and she looks at it, finding a slim young man with neatly cut, straight, dark blue hair and sky blue eyes. He seemed bored or tired in the picture.
"Ah, I remember now." Shizuka straightens up, recalling that Shuhei was a recent clansmen who joined about two months ago, but she never saw him after his initiation which is why she couldn't put a face to his name.
"Shuhei-kun hasn't return from Glassvale Entertainment and it's been over two hours. It shouldn't take that long to deliver a flash-drive to them and he doesn't have lunch until 3." Soma speaks.
"And the company is about twenty minutes away. We know he didn't get into an accident because every one would have gotten a call or something since he borrowed one of the company's cars...right?" Toshiro asks and Shizuka was silent but agrees with him, an ominous feeling growing inside of her.
"When did he leave?" She asks.
"Er...probably around 10:20? He normally comes into work at 10 and I was the one who told him to take the drive to Glassvale" Soma explains.
"Has he answered his phone or PDA from any of you?" She continues questioning and the three shake their heads. "Perhaps he's still on the road?"
"He's driving really slow then." Soma continues, crossing his arms. "He should have been here forty minutes ago, to be honest, and hunched over his next to mine like normal, but, no one has seen him."
"I see. I was heading out for lunch anyways so I'll look out for him. Will you send me that picture, Shirakura-chan? I know I'll forget if I don't have a reference." Shizuka looks at Kanae.
"Y-Yes, ma'am." Kanae felt obliged, her face flushing and taps on her phone and sends the image to Shizuka's clansmen phone. She then felt excited to go on an adventure and grins happily as she leaves.
Company cars had GPS tracking and the front desk was able to pull up that sort of information to give to her when she needed it, but, just because she could locate the car, it didn't mean the person would be in it; however, it' a good place to start.
Shizuka pulled out her personal phone and messages Yayoi:
I'm heading out for lunch, but a clansmen name Sumika Shuhei hasn't returned to work from an errand to Glassvale so I'm going to check out what happened. I may not be back for a few hours.
She sends the message as she heads up to her office on the top floor, grabbing her jacket and purse, and taking the stairs, jumping down while her Aura protects her landing, soon leaving the area. She confronts the front desk, meeting with Tsukina, who greets her cheerfully.
"I need to see the sign sheet." Shizuka says and Tsukina looks at her with wide eyes, but quickly handing her the clipboard and she searches for Shuhei's name, seeing that he hasn't signed back in yet, but he left the building at 10:16 a.m. "Sumika Shuhei borrowed a company car and I would like for you to give me its GPS number, please?"
"Yes ma'am." Tsukina says, quickly typing on the computer and switching to the mouse every now and then. She was quiet for a moment, but Shizuka waits patiently as she writes down the numbers, handing the sticky note to her.
"Strange how the car is heading into Shizume city...is something going on since it's HOMRA territory." She speaks and Shizuka lifts an eyebrow at her.
"HOMRA?" Shizuka questions, unfamiliar with the name and cocking her head slightly to the side, attempting to figure out what it was.
"E-Eh, you really don't know? They're the Red Clan, ma'am." Tsukina spoke slowly and was stunned that her King was unfamiliar with the name, drawn aback by her cluelessness.
"Eh~ really? Is that what people are calling them now? I can never remember the names, just their color." Shizuka laughs as if it was a joke and Tsukina was very concerned at the moment, thinking that HOMRA has been around for quite a while, but she didn't want to question her King and thought she was just joking around.
"Anyways. I'm heading out for a bit." She says, signing on the sheet and handing it back to Tsukina.
"Yes! Please drive safely!" She calls as Shizuka takes off, waving a hand.
She opens a door to the parking lot outside and finds her pearl white car, pulling out her keys and the lights flicker on as she unlocks it. She steps inside the car after throwing her purse in the passenger seat, quickly turning the engine on and adjusting the heater. She snaps on her seat belt and turns on her stereo, the LCD touchscreen blinking awake. She then waits while the car warms up, checking all of her cellphones, her personal one first, finding a message from Yayoi:
Understood. I'll hold the fort down as usual, but if anything happens please call me ASAP.
Shizuka then checks her clansmen phone, finding the image from Kanae of Shuhei and memorizing his features carefully. Headed to Glassvale to deliver a flash drive, huh? She thought. I don't have the time to head over there myself so I need to call and check out the time sheet for him.
She pauses and thought it was fun playing detective and then returns to reading texts, moving onto the next messages, finding a few replies to the Secret Santa game, some accepting the invite and other declining. She reaches over to her purse to pull out the notebook with the list, crossing off names, and then searches for Shuhei, finding him as 'unsure' of going to the party on the paper. His number was also there and she checks her phone to make sure she had in saved, which she did, and throws the notebook back in her purse while she opens up a specific app, typing in the company car's GPS number.
Soon, a blue bubble pops up on a multi colored map and she eyes the dot slowly moving through Shizume city, just like Tsukina said. Soon, she dials the front desk to Glassvale and after the first ring someone picks up.
"Glassvale Entertainment this is Midorikawa Kotaro speaking, how may I help you?"
"This is Takahiro Shizuka. It's good to hear from you, Midorikawa-san." Shizuka speaks and she hears a chuckle on the other line.
"Oh, hello, Takahiro-san, as always it's a pleasure." He says.
Midorikawa Kotaro was the front desk attendant at Glassvale Entertainment as well as a Clansmen of nearly thirteen years.
"There's a man name Sumika Shuhei who recently visited and I need to know his time in and out from there." She explains, hearing him shuffling around for the time sheet.
"Yes, I remember seeing him come in to deliver something. We also talked about Wakaba Takeo for a bit because he missed his coffee this morning." Kotaro chuckles and Shizuka does as well.
"Ah, that man is headstrong even without his coffee. I'm sure he's fine." She says.
"As always. Anyways, back to Sumika-kun, it says here that he checked into the building at 10:32 a.m. and was out at 11:45 a.m. He was probably reviewing with the staff for a little over an hour on whatever he had to deliver and that's a long time if I must say." He says.
"I see..." Shizuka mutters, tapping her fingers on her steering wheel. He should definitely be back at the studio, but if those three from the same
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Kotaro asks but she shakes her head.
"That's it for now. Thank you very much."
"Yes, anytime ma'am. You have a good day." He says before hanging up.
The times don't match. Shizuka thought, texting Yayoi if she could pull up Shuhei's file and afterwards switching to the GPS app on her phone and finding that the bubble was still in Shizume city, turning towards the coasts. She receives a text from Yayoi:
I'll just call you when I find it so I don't have to type so much.
That made Shizuka chuckle.
She then adjusts the volume on her phone and returns to the app, pressing the tracking button and pulling out from the lot as her phone directs her where to go.
Shizume City was thirty minutes from Rush Studios with traffic, but Shizuka planned on making it there in a third of the time.
"Let's get this started~" She laughs to herself as she merges onto the highway in a swift fashion, speeding down the road, dodging slower traffic and passing through red lights. She had exceeding every speed limit and maneuvered throughout the city, dodging other vehicles and making sharp turns, following the orders her phone gave her as she continues to pursue the company car, which had now parked at an unfamiliar area near the ocean and Shizuka was unable to recognize it.
Soon, her personal phone began ringing, the ringtone belonging to Yayoi.
Shizuka reaches over to answer it, connecting the call to her car's Bluetooth, but quickly swipes to the side so she could still see the map.
"Yes?"
"I found Sumika Shuhei's file for you." Yayoi speaks, her voice comes through the car's speakers.
"Good, but skip his physical traits and get on with whatever else, please." Shizuka demands, glancing over at her phone and seeing that the highlighted road on the map was turning and she follows.
"At least let me make an introduction of him." Yayoi sighs. "He is 25 years old and born on April 22. He is an animation assistant in the Obsidian animation department at Rush Studio, which I might add that they are currently working on an anime with Glassvale Entertainment." She explains and Shizuka nods her head, seeing that she was nearing Shizume City on her GPS, stepping on the gas. "He is also a freelance photographer and his household consists of four members, his parents and his younger sister, Sumika Inaba, who attends Ashinaka High School, which, I should mention, has faced casualties the other day and is currently shut down."
Shizuka lifts her eyebrow and smirks, fascinated with the school island information, but it wasn't anything relevant to the current situation.
"Just letting you in on some daily news, since you're stubborn about the outside world." Yayoi adds in as if she was able to read Shizuka's mind.
"Now, that's not true. Today I learned that the Red Clan is called HOMRA." Shizuka argues and hears Yayoi laugh on the other end, thinking that Shizuka was being a kid again.
"You never change. I wonder how many times people will tell you that until you remember, but I guess we'll continue calling them the Red Clan until you actually go and meet them...whenever that will be" She clears her throat and Shizuka brushes it off, not too worried about it.
"I'll only believe it when I see it...literally...and maybe multiple times more, but you know how my brain is." She remarks, glancing at her phone to find that she was nearing her destination and slows down, an overwhelming feeling of excitement rises inside of her.
"Is there any medical conditions listed for him?" Shizuka asks.
"Other than his shot records, no." Yayoi answers. "He's never convicted any felonies either, and he graduated from Tokyo University with a degree in economics...and that concludes his file for now."
"Interesting." Shizuka purrs and notices that her surrounding had dramatically changed. The road had also become a bit narrower but there were still buildings of different shapes and sizes around in good condition, with large empty lots spaced between them and the ocean visible as she passes by. Her phone notified her that her destination was only accessible by walking and to park in a few meters.
"Shizuka...where are you at exactly right now?" Yayoi speaks after a pause as Shizuka narrows down on the location of the studio car, finding herself in an area that looked like a dock for small shipments. There were three warehouses with rusted roofs, large trucks were parked around and some metal container ships, but there weren't any people walking about and cars also did not seem to cross by but you can hear the interstate and highways in the distance. It looked as if this could have been fishing market or something similar.
"I'm in Shizume City right now." She finally answers, parking her car a little off the road, which stopped at a dead end since there was a metal gate blocking her path.
"What? Why are you in Red territory? Wait...if you left at...no...you didn't just speed there did you?" Yayoi questions, her voice full of irritation and worry, but Shizuka laughs out loud.
"Of course I did! This city is where the studio's car is at right now and I told you that I was heading out to find Shuhei." Shizuka shuts the engine off, grabbing her phone and stepping out, keeping Yayoi on speaker as she steps in front of her car.
"Shizuka, you are reckless as always. Don't you understand that the Blue Clan will be on your trail with the havoc you probably caused on the road?" Yayoi questions angrily but she only laughs again, soon taking a deep breath.
"Nothing else matters other than the safety of my Clan." Shizuka maintains a smug look, "Doon't worry~ and things will be much more interesting if the Blues show up and I'll just improvise if something happens."
Yayoi wasn't too convinced about her carefree words. Even though Shizuka is a King, she was not invincible, but she was also not a coward and had a big heart for her Clansmen, which she should be grateful of.
"You're in command as always. Please be careful." Yayoi remarks, accepting her King's decision and Shizuka softly giggles as she hangs up.
She looks at the blue bubble on the screen, which was pulsing a few meters in front of her, located behind one of the warehouses parked on something that looked like a pier, and she lifts her chin up a little and narrows her eyes, letting out a short sigh and her breath could be seen for a short moment. She then shifts her eyes to scope out for anything unusual, analyzing the perimeters before making a her next move, deciding how thrilling this really was.
She shuts off her phone and places it inside of her coat pocket, stepping over the metal gate and approaching the warehouses and the clicking of her heels echo throughout the yard.