Monday, 1st of April; Morning
A train pulled into Shibuya station, and disgorged a torrent of passengers onto the platform in a semi-ordered manner which exists nowhere in the world except the Tokyo metro system. One amongst many in that deluge was a junior police detective who, being new Tokyo, hadn't enjoyed being jammed into the train like a sardine in the can. Now un-squashed though, he felt a little giddy, unbalanced without anyone around to support him, and nothing familiar to hold on to.
The Shibuya station was quite pleasant though, well lit and free from litter as was the Japanese way, it smelled of cleaning solution which, while harsh, was preferable to the sweaty, clammy man he'd been pressed-up against for three stops.
He'd been told to wait here to be picked-up by another detective, a Tohru Adachi, whose picture didn't match anyone he could see as he went through the barriers. Actually, there didn't seem to be anyone passed the barriers at-all, or anywhere in the station that he could. Except for one person.
A girl at most in her mid-teens, short and with blond hair falling the full length of her back, she was dressed in a long, blue coat and had her golden-eyes fixed firmly on him. She approached him with a steady pace.
"Greetings, traveller, I am Lavenza," She had a very refined accent, but sounded a little, uncanny and her unblinking gaze was unnerving to the traveller.
"Please come with me."
She proffered him her hand and he felt compelled to take it. The moment he took it, a blue door materialised in-front of him and he was almost dragged through it.
This led him into a room that was dark, but relaxing. His first thought was that it looked like a fancy hotel room. A king-sized or larger bed against set against one wall dominated the space, and by the foot of it there were two armchairs located placed around a coffee table, and one corner there was a desk with an office chair. The curtains were drawn, and made of a thick, blue velvet which matched the carpet and wallpaper.
He turned around to the entrance to room and just past wall which he supposed separated the bedroom from the bathroom, there was a desk. It blocked the entrance to the room, 'Lavenza' sat perched on it like a doll, and behind it sat a man who the traveller thought looked like a James Bond villain. He was six-foot at least, even when not just seated but hunched forwards as well, and like all good Bond villains, had a signature, physical oddity which set him aside from the rest of society, for this man, it was a colossal nose which extended in a sharp-beak several inches proud of the rest of his face.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room, I am Igor. You must have many questions, but alas, I do not have time to answer them now. For now, you should know that we exist in a place between reality and dreams acting as guides for mortals such as yourself. Our help is free, but only available to those who sign a contract." As he spoke, a pen and paper lifted rose from the desk and floated across the room towards the traveller.
"I'm sorry," he replied "But is this some kind of April-fool's joke?"
"No," replied Igor "It's magic."
A wave of ice ran the length of the traveller's spine. A stood stunned for a moment, that wave tingling in the traveller's rectum, making him feeling like he needed to use the toilet.
"This is a lot to take in," began Lavenza in a comforting tone, "But know that it is not just your fate that hangs in the balance. My master is sincere, and we are here to help you."
The traveller didn't even realise he was signing his name, he only knew that his hand was moving in a jerky motion.
'Grey Atlusato'
Before the contract floated its way back to Igor Grey took a brief look at what he had just agreed to, it said only 'I shall follow my instinct, and in doing-so bring pleasure to this world.'
"And so your journey begins," said Igor, "Farewell, until we meet again".
Grey had the unpleasant feeling of falling backwards, moving through space until the Shibuya train-station appeared around him. Thankfully, it was now full of people, and not one of them gave Grey a second-look as he struggled to regain his composure.
Presently, a young man shuffled through the crowd towards him. He wore his suit in a scruffy fashion, his top-button undone and tie loose, he slouched and walked with an uninterested gate.
"Hey," he began, "I'm detective-sergeant Adachi, you must be Grey, Dojima sent me to collect you, although I don't see why you'd need help getting to the station."
Grey recognised him from the picture he'd been sent earlier, although he'd been standing up straight when it was taken, and also recognised the name of Detective-Chief-Inspector Dojima who he had been transferred to work under.
"Hello, Adachi-san, it's a a pleasure to meet you." Grey offered him his had.
"Oh, yeah sure," Adachi shook the hand without enthusiasm.
Adachi led Grey through the station, which was easily the largest he'd ever been in. They stopped for a moment while Adachi watched a screen showing adverts. There was a young woman he vaguely recognised as an idol, Risette according to the screen captions, she was rolling around and being sprayed by very cold water, judging by the way her nipples stood erect through the fabric of her bikini. She was also enjoying, perhaps a little too much, a can of Quelorie Magic, a diet drink 'even I can handle, now guaranteed not to shrink your boobs'.
Grey was very taken with her large, brown eyes which matched her copper-coloured hair plastered across her face in a sexy-way, contrasting her otherwise playful expression, and the way cradled the can between her two, perky breasts which in fairness to the advert didn't look to have shrunk as a result of dieting.
It struck Grey that this was a rather perverted advert to go putting on the metro, but it had worked on Adachi and him, and judging by a conversation he could hear from two women behind him, it wasn't just a hit with the men.
"Did you see her body?"
"I know, she looked so good."
"I know, her waste was so thin, but her breasts were still so big. I've wanted to lose some weight for a while now, but I've been worried about the effect it might have on my boobs, not to brag but they are amazing, and my husband loves them."
"It's not only your husband who loves them, mind if I have a feel?"
"Not here, in public…Hey, I said not here!"
…
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…
Monday, 1st of April; Afternoon.
That interlude resulted in Grey and Adachi missing the next train towards Yongen-Jaya, which was where their station was, but as this was the Tokyo metro, another was at the platform in under five minutes. The Yongen-Jaya line was less busy, but it was clear that Yongen was one of the more deprived areas of Tokyo. The streets were narrower and the houses smaller and more traditional. An enormous fly-over cast a shadow over the area, leaving dark and cold, and some of the backstreets had a perpetual smell of damp to them.
Adachi hadn't led Grey more than two paces into the police station when they were accosted by a very angry man.
"Adachi, where the hell have you been!?"
"Dojioma-san, the station was busy, we had trouble getting onto the plat…"
"Aaah, I don't wanna hear it." Detective Ryataro Dojima was a man who whose unshaven stubble and bags under his eyes made him look older than he was. He wore a white, button-up shirt which wasn't properly tucked-in, and his undone top-button and rolled-up sleeves gave him a very workman-like appearance. He turned his attention from Adachi to Grey and said, "Urrgh, sorry kid, I didn't want your first meeting with me to be me just chewing everyone out," he gave Adachi a pointed stare, "I'm Detective-Chief-Inspector Dojima, come this way. So what do you know about the case already?"
"Nothing yet, Dojima-san, only that I was requested specifically."
"Well that's good, we're sending you under cover to the Kirijo group to investigate a missing person."
Grey spluttered.
"Yeah, the Kirijo group. Some reporter called Maya Amano went snooping around there late at night, our information that she went inside is good and another officer we sent in earlier was able to get evidence that she was in the building, but to get further in we need someone who understands what they're working on."
"Dojima-san, I have no idea what they're working on."
"Well neither do we, but apparently it's some contraption that works on Jung-ian psychology, and that's where you come in, what's a guy with a PHD in psychology doing in the police-force?"
Biting down the desire to tell Dojima that it was pronounced 'Yoong-ian' after the German psychiatrist Karl Jung, Grey said "I wanted to use my knowledge of human behaviour to catch criminals."
"Huh," Grey couldn't tell if Dojima's grunt was one of derision or approval, "Well, your cover is that you're psychologist called…" Dojima flicked through some papers on his desk and then said "Grey Atlusato, but that's your real name! Adachai you damn idiot, don't you know your supposed to give undercover officers a fake name!?"
"I'm sorry Dojima-san, but I needed to have some real published articles that I could point to as previous examples of his work."
"Oh for crying out… well it's too late now. So you start tomorrow, be there for nine-am sharp. Here's the case-file for the missing woman. Adachi, take the new-guy to the apartment we've got him and then your arse back here, and don't take all day about it."
…
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…
Monday, 1st of April; Evening
The flat he'd been put-up in was a short walk away back-towards the station, but Adachi's unhurried pace made progress much slower than it needed to be. It was in a side-road next to café called Le'Blanc, which boasted 'Tokyo's finest coffee, Asian-European fusion curries'. The proprietor was locking up and nodded to them as they walked past. He was sly-looking old-fox, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, and a stylish goatie and smart-casual white suit that he had the confidence to pull-off.
"Is that place any good?" Grey asked after Adachi had shown him through the front door.
"No idea," replied Adachi as stopped to check that he hadn't stepped in the puddle of sick outside the door. Adachi hadn't wanted to engage in any small-talk other to complain about his job. Apparently, Dojima was always this 'happy' as Adachi put it, but was also worse recently because he was giving-up smoking.
"Well this is it, hey it's much nicer than my place." Adachi showed Grey through the door of the flat on the second floor. It was a deceptively nice flat for the area, the carpets were soft under his feet, probably not new but they'd been looked after by whoever had been here before him. The living room and main bedroom both has large windows facing away from the fly-over, and were bright and airy in the evening sun, but the bathroom and kitchen face the opposite way, and he guessed he'd need the light on in there even on the brightest days.
Adachi was particularly interested in the T.V., which didn't look particularly special to Grey, but without asking Adachi turned it on and started flicking through the channels.
"They've done you a pretty basic package, you've the Shounen channel, the Shoujo channel, the Seinen channel, the Hentai channel, news, sports, Weird-Japanese-Game-Show channel… ah, the Tanaka-corp channel, you should tune in to that on Sunday-mornings for 'Tanaka's Amazing Commodities' they always have the weirdest stuff."
"Are you a T.V. buff then?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired everyday after work, so I don't have the energy to do much other than watch T.V. Even though my jobs a drag, I still like the crime dramas with lots of action in them."
'Adachi-san seems like he really needs a friend, perhaps I should try to be one for him,' thought Grey.
"Well, that's everything I guess, I'll see you tomorrow. Come to the station once you've finished at the Kirijo group."
He said goodbye and left Grey alone.
Grey sat down and got to reading the case notes.
The missing woman was Maya Amano, a woman in her early twenties with black, shoulder-length hair and dark, purple eyes, the pictures provided of her looked quite to Grey. She wrote articles about strange phenomena for a small magazine called 'Vague', and it was her co-worker, a woman called Yukari Takeba who had reported her missing on the Tuesday the 12th of March.
She was investigating the Kirijo group over reports that people who worked or lived near their building in Minato, supposedly her plan had been to sneak into the building at night on Saturday, the 9th and investigate their 'telepathic-technologies department'. Eye-witness reports indicated that she had been in the area that evening. Another officer who had gone in under-cover as a security-guard contractor had further discovered DNA evidence inside the building which gave a partial match, and that when the scientist working in 'telepathic-technologies' (often shortened to 'TT') had come in on Monday they had been upset by something, although the officer had not been able to uncover what it was. CCTV in the building had been malfunctioning for some time, and only sporadically saved the data it captured. Much of the case seemed to revolve around the work in TT, which was too incomprehensible to the officer for her to get any real information on, fortunately, the Kirijo group had been hiring for a position in TT and that was his way in. Adachi had handled the application in a surprisingly smooth manner.
The only other information he needed to know was that the other undercover officer was a constable Chie Satanoka, who had given her undercover name as Sheila Lee. She was a fresh recruit, so excited that she hadn't been able to keep a straight face for he Police ID, with large brown eyes and light-brown hair cut into a bob, she had an athletic build.
It was late when he finished going through the case-notes, and the moment he put them down, a wave of tiredness washed over him. Grey realised that there wasn't any food in his fridge. In a near stupor, Grey dragged himself to a corner-shop (known as a knonbini), lit up at night by sharp neon-signs which jabbed into his eyes, and bought himself a ready-meal for this evening and tomorrow, and a few other essentials before shuffling back home. The food tasted of nothing, and his arms were heavy as he brushed his teeth. It was two-am when he crawled into bed and he set his alarm for seven. His last thought was that five hours of sleep wouldn't be enough.
