The Ginger Death Chapter 11 The Detective, The Killer, The Common Enemy

The Ginger Death
Chapter 11
The Detective,
The Killer,
The Common Enemy

While waiting for contact from Kuromotoma Haji, bored out of his mind with all the time he has on his paws he sits in front of Yasuo’s work desk looking at a finished manuscript on the monitor as he thinks “Censored!”

“I get bored enough, I finally indulge my curiosity and take a look at the Manga Yasuo makes and it turns out to be this censored Y100 Store Puff Smut!?” Haji thinks furiously as he glares at the monitor with a look like the images of a Rom Com about a Zombie Girl who wasn’t popular in life but after a harrowing yet comedic death ended up super popular as a zombie somehow make him want to puke he continues “I love Zombie Movies and Zombie TV Series but I hate this series that makes a mockery of the genre!!”

“Censored!!” Haji shouts as he turns away in disgust and jumps down from the desk not able to look at the manuscript any longer as he thinks “I already had enough reasons to want to kill this guy but now I find out he’s the Author of THAT series!!?”

As Haji walks out of the room he notices two of the assistants were playing chess before Yasuo left them with some free time while he delivers the current manuscript to his editor and decides to jump up and take a look and sees the Assistant playing Black is almost in check but sees a move they can use to put the white player in checkmate on their turn.

“Hardly a grand master level game this one, might as well end it for them.” Haji thinks after analysing the board and figuring out the relatively generic moves that led to this set up and realising its Black's turn and moves the Black Knight into position rendering Checkmate when the game resumes as he thinks “Hopefully the next game they play will be more inspired than this.”

Having sated his curiosity Haji leaves Yasuo’s office and starts walking toward his room intending to watch TV until he gets hungry when suddenly he hears a notification sound in his head and sees the communication app in his mind beginning to download an update.

Haji keeps walking while watching the apps update icon proceed while he thinks “Finally some progress, they took their time uploading the app to the Shadow Network along with the decentralised server patch.”

As soon as he enters his room Haji notices the app has finished updating and automatically logged in.

No sooner than the app boots up a call comes through from Kuromotoma much to Haji’s surprise.

“Kuromotoma, what’s been happening while I’ve been out of touch?” Haji asks with a seriously sour note clearly upset about how long Kuromotoma’s been out of touch before she calmly replies “No time to give you all the details but Yukio’s been captured and I needed to bring in some help so we can get him back.”

“Censored!! Why did you wait this long to tell me this!!??” Haji shouts, unable to believe Kuromotoma would drag her feet for so long before she replies “I couldn’t get in touch yet, I only just got the software update an hour ago and there’s something more important we need to discuss before anything else.”

Haji goes silent as he awaits what Kuromotoma intends to tell him before she says “I had to act on my own judgement and extend a measure of trust to someone I know you won’t like being involved in this.”

“Who…?” Haji asks with a note of severe dread born of his awareness Kuromotoma wouldn’t say such a thing unless it were equally as bad news as Yukio’s capture.

As Kuromotoma readies herself to tell Haji who she brought in to help find Yukio she braces herself for his inevitable wrath and once she feels ready she says “I brought in Detective Tanisuzu, he was there when Yukio was taken and I’ve explained the situation to him as best I can, he is willing to work with us on this case.”

Having walked into his room and jumped on the table Haji stands there next to the TV remote utterly speechless at the news he was just given by Kuromotoma barely able to believe his own ears before involuntarily snarling as he begins to shout “CENSORED!!!” over and over again.

While Kuromotoma sits calmly waiting for Haji to regain his sanity, Ichiro watches in confusion as to why the person on the other end of the phone is shouting that specific word again and again.

After several minutes Haji calms down and stops shouting “Censored” over and over again before mentally letting out a long series of exhales as he regains his composure.

“Kuromotoma, put the phone on loudspeaker!” Haji demands as he brings his paw down on the TV Remotes On Button activating the TV just in time for a rerun of the Highschool of Zombies Anime much to Haji’s disgust.

As Kuromotoma hesitantly places her phone on the table and activates the app's loudspeaker function she breaks out in a cold sweat as she thinks “I really hope he isn’t going to say or do anything stupid over this.”

As Ichiro watches Kuromotoma endure such extreme anxiety and apprehension he wonders just what he’s in for when without warning Haji’s Minds Voice casually crawls out of the phone as he ominously says “This is the first time we’ve spoken this directly my Nemesis…”

Ichiro sits there, frozen on the floor cushion, unable to move, feeling a biblical sense dread at the realisation the person on the other side of the phone is his “Nemesis” and that the feeling is mutual.

“Let’s get one thing straight right here, right now, this ‘truce’ of ours is only for this case, any further truce’s will depend on circumstance, agreed…?” Haji casually states with a note of clear displeasure at having to work with Ichiro but managing to be the bigger man in spite of his feelings and size.

Ichiro looks at the phone in surprise not realising his “Nemesis” could be capable of such reasonable thought after the way he lost reason before but ultimately nods affirmatively and replies “I can agree to that this time, my pride as a detective is hurt by this, I’ll settle things with you at a more appropriate time.”

“Big words, too bad my lawyer would get me off on a technicality even if you got me in front of a judge.” Haji replies knowing full well it’d be ridiculous to put a cat on trial for murder and even if they managed it he’d walk because they already punished him for his crimes when he was human.

As Ichiro glares at the phone in response to the feeling the person on the other end is glaring back at him Kuromotoma puts her hand between them and says "Enough you two, we're supposed to be trying to save Yukio not trading barbs!"

Both Haji and Ichiro go silent realising bickering like kids will only aid their shared enemies.

Kuromotoma lets out a light sigh as she looks at both Ichiro and the phone and states "Ichiro, you will look into the security cameras at the station and ask around, I'll get my contacts here to look into finding Yukio via our methods."

“As for you ghost, you use your special skills to see what you can dig up on the suspects and see what you can uncover without blowing yours." Kuromotoma continues to Haji as he listens on the other side with his tail waving back and forth with displeasure.

"What is with this Ghost code name??" Haji asks as his tail continues to move in a displeased manner.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Kuromotoma asks with a sharp look in her eyes.

Haji thinks over his options and realises pretty much everything other than something related to the Evil God would likely result in him outing himself before making a resigned sigh before answering “You’ve got a point, I’ll put up with it for now.”

As Kuromotoma and Ichiro watch the phone in suspense awaiting Haji’s next reply only to be met with an angry “Censored!!” as Haji changes the channel before saying “They would decide to randomly switch my second favourite zombie series for my second least favourite pile of puffsmut!!”

Kuromotoma and Ichiro sit there taken aback by what they just heard before Kuromotoma shouts “Focus Ghost!! We don’t need to be hearing about your hatred of shows that combined Zombies and rampant fan service!!”

On the other end of the call Haji is holding a paw over one of his ears due to the extreme pain before saying “I get it, so what do you need me to look into on my end?”

“I’ll fill you in via the usual person, they’ll contact you via the usual method for obvious reasons.” Kuromotoma replies calmly as she looks at Ichiro who stares back at her realising why she’s being so cryptic about what Haji will be doing and who they’ll be doing it with.

As soon as Kuromotoma goes to end the call Haji says “Before you go, Ichiro Tanisuzu, I have a message for you.”

“If you have something to say then spit it out, we have no need to mince words at his point.” Ichiro replies sternly not impressed that Haji knows his full name and is using it in a blatantly cheap attempt to make himself sound more menacing than he actually is.

“I may not have any reason related to Kuromotoma’s people or her group's cause to kill you but if you insist on trying to catch me I’ll kill you and your brother for personal reasons including your Brothers Manga.” Haji states calmly as can be for someone announcing his intent to murder both his nemesis and his nemesis’s brother who happens to be his most hated Mangaka.

Ichiro calmly stares at the phone as he declares in reply “I have no issue with you coming after me in retribution for my work, that’s just a hazard of my job and I’ve resigned myself to that reality.”

“though you will find yourself regretting it if you murder my Brother and not for the reasons you expect.” Ichiro finishes as he presses the button on the phone to end the call.

Back at the house Haji pictures Yukio in his mind as he thinks “Censored Yukio!! You had to go and get yourself grabbed… Could this day get any worse!?”

While he’s thinking that, the TV announcer suddenly states “And now for our nine day Zombie Middle School 12 hour a day Marathon covering all nine seasons across the next nine days.”

Throughout the neighbourhood everyone suddenly feels like they heard someone shout “CENSORED!!!” Loud enough they all heard it but wrote it off as just their imaginations.

Back in Neo Shibuya Ichiro and Kuromotoma sit at the table as Ichiro asks “Obviously we can’t be reckless with this investigation and we’re clearly under surveillance possibly by those behind your allies kidnapping so what do you suggest be our first step?”

Kuromotoma rings a bell to let people know she needs something and says “We can’t risk getting caught by the people surveilling us, but we can identify them if we’re smart about it and get access to the CCTV footage we need from the station.”

A moment after Kuromotoma finishes speaking a knock comes from the door and Kuromotoma goes to answer it.

“You called Miss Ayame?” The young woman at the door asks as soon as she sees Kuromotma’s face before she answers “I need you to get that package that I had sent from the Anoms and bring it here.”

“Understood, I’ll bring it right away.” The young woman states as Kuromotoma closes the door and returns to the table.

“Apologies for that Tanisuzu.” Kuromotoma says as she sits down at the table calmly before continuing to explain “Yukio is one of our finest tech experts but is by no means the only one we have.”

Kuromotoma opens up the hidden wifi network app on her phone and shows it to Ichiro as she continues “We of Neo Shibuya aren’t using standard wifi, internet or phone signals for our communications and networking needs as you well know at this point but what you don’t know is how we achieve this.”

“You have people like that brat create the technology for you using their vast wealth and resources to design versions of existing tech that only work for you and can’t be detected via ordinary means.” Ichiro interrupts before she can elaborate with a serious look in his eyes before saying “Give me some credit, I can at least deduce that much from what I’ve been told so far and observed and it only makes sense you’d have a network of people to do these things.”

“Correct but that’s only a small part of it.” Kuromotoma explains picking up where she was interrupted “We use a mix of shadow networks and specialised transmitters and receivers as well as special software as you’ve deduced.”

Suddenly Kuromotoma’s eyes turn red and narrow as she stares straight into Ichiro’s eyes with a seriousness that underpins what she’s about to say “We use special encryption software developed by some of the most elite coders on the planet among our people down here and in the entire underground network.”

“Underground network, as in there’s more places like this in Japan?” Ichiro exclaims in utter surprise and shock that his unconscious theory that the train he rode had other locations it could take passengers to not just stations that allowed people to visit this underground city.

“Of course there are!” Kuromotoma replies slightly surprised Ichiro would need to be told such a thing given how much else he put together before continuing “We have facilities all over Mainland Japan and on some of the larger islands, we even have a few deep sea locations off the coast as well as locations in the Seto Inland Sea.”

Ichiro looks utterly shocked due to how taken aback he is by the sudden realisation that there’s a whole network of such facilities across Japan and that some are even like the neo steampunk sci fi settings of some popular games.

“It’s not just Japan either.” Kuromotoma states with an enlightened look as she continues to explain “There’s a great many such locations in other countries in such places as the US, Canada, the UK, China, Europe and even parts of Russia.”

“Just when you think the world can’t throw you any more curveballs you hear stuff like this.” Ichiro states with the look of a man who just got Truth Carpet Bombed.

While Ichiro is trying to process the reality of everything he just heard Kuromotoma gets up and answers another knock at the door and the young woman hands her a package addressed to her under her full name before she closes the door and returns to the table.

Before opening the package Kuromotoma shows Ichiro the wifi app on her phone she opened and reveals that it has most of the standard fields except that to log in you need special pass codes generated by special devices users of the wifi systems have as she explains “As you can see our wifi systems need special authenticator tools to generate passcodes to log into our networks but these devices use such things as extremely complex multilayered language based encryptions made using both real and fictional languages as well as some made specifically for the task.”

“These encryptions are just one part of it though, they use specialised computer languages as the original language and chaos based fractals derived from such things as random segments of pi.” Kuromotoma explains as she pulls a code generator from her pocket and places it on the table and says “These code generators have to be paired with the wifi systems they are used with and have identity verification systems that make it extremely difficult to hack or miss use them.”

As Ichiro listens and takes in what he’s being told he realises just how over his head the stuff Kuromotoma is used to dealing with on a daily basis is and says “If the above is the case then what’s in the box and what does it have to do with our investigation?”

In response to Ichiro’s question Kuromotoma opens the box and takes out several devices including various surveillance devices and tracking devices as well as network setup and access devices and explains “These were sent to me by my request recently by one of our local members of Anonymous.”

“After several members of Anonymous dealt with that jerk who claimed he was going to bring them down several of their members in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe got together with members from Russia, China and North Korea and worked and came up with a means to crush the oppressive government control of their network access.” Kuromotoma explains as she removes more devices from the box and continues “Among other things they created the foundations of our networks as well as such things as a digital battering ram program that thanks to its Quantum Fractal codes can reduce even current Cyber Security System firewalls to Grated Daikon.”

“So we’ll be using such technology to find the rot inside the department and root it out while looking for the brat?” Ichiro inquires having managed to take in enough of the information to get the general idea behind the plan.

Kuromotoma nods before explaining “I was going to set up a surveillance network in the station to try and find those people but before I could all this kicked off.”

“The plan is for both of us to install these and other devices around the station and on the vehicles of those we consider suspects.” Kuromotoma explains and as she finishes unpacking the box she states “This will be a lot of work and has more in common with the work of spies than the work of Police Officers, are you still on board?”

Kuromotoma puts her glasses back on and opens up a booklet with instructions on how to set up the devices and shows it to Ichiro as she asks “If we’re going to go the justice route that’s as by the book as you would prefer we’ll need a trustworthy judge from the community to give us secret warrants for these activities, do you happen to have any candidates in mind?”

Ichiro goes quiet as he raises his hand to his chin contemplating his answer carefully before he lets the words leave his brain through his mouth.

After a few moments he asks for a pen and paper and writes up a list of the names of several judges he respects and believes may be trustworthy and says “These Judges are among the few I’d consider but only based on what experience I personally have with them.”

Kuromotoma looks over the list and circles several in different colours, some in red, a few in blue and three in green before she says “I’ve coloured the circles for simplicity's sake using the light spectrums that affect dyslexia like mine for example.”

She points to the names listed in red and says “In the case of people who wear glasses with filter tints like mine for their dyslexia the three colours are Red, Blue and Green, each affecting a given person’s brain differently in my case red makes my dyslexia worse but Green lessens it but blue is neutral.”

“The reason I single out the Red circled names in this case is they’re names of Judges we can’t trust.” She states as she taps the pen with the tip retracted next to the name of one of the Red Circled Judges and states “They’re people we should consider enemies and avoid drawing the attention of if we can.”

She then moves the pen to the name of one of the Blue Circled Judges and says “These Judges could go either way as far as we know but at the very least most of them are moderates we may be able to bring over to our side if we can convince them of which side is the one the law should be on.”

“As for the three Green Circled Judges, it should go without saying that they’re trustworthy.” Kuromotoma states as she points to the three names circled in Green and points to one specific judge and says “Not only are these judges the most likely to be on our side but one of them is related to one of the people who founded the underground communities.”

Ichiro looks over the names listed in red and is shocked by the fact that one of them wasn’t one of the names he deliberately included to test their integrity but one of the judges he would previously have trusted implicitly before noticing Kuromotoma is glaring at the name through her glasses and remembers that she tapped the pen next to that name and asks “Is there a specific reason you hate that particular judge?”

Kuromotoma calms down and her reaction to the name subsides as she looks at Ichiro having regained her composure and answers “He’s the judge who ordered the ‘Execution’ or more accurately Murder of my Father for having Married my Mother even knowing who and what she was.”

Ichiro’s face turns to that of a man whose blood just ran cold as the waters of the river Cocytus in the land of the dead having realised the true colours of someone he once trusted and respected having only just found out that person was the complete antithesis of everything he thought the man to be.

“As hard as it is to swallow I know you’re telling the truth.” Ichiro states regaining his mental stability in the wake of such a realisation before getting a deadly serious glint in his eyes as he says “I will help you personally bring that man to justice for that and every other misdeed he’s committed.”

Kuromotoma raises her hand revealing she’s now holding a small gemstone that shines with various colours as she says “I’m glad to hear you say that, things will be so much easier with your help in convincing judges to help us.”

“Also, Mikoto-Nechan, hiding behind the door and eavesdropping is so rude, just come join us if you’re that interested in the conversation.” Suddenly the gem loses a significant amount of its shine as if it has somehow the source of the shine has weakened and at the same time the doors handle cycles into the open position and a woman on the other side falls through the doorway as the door opens.

As soon as the door opens all the way the young woman faceplants into the floor before pulling herself up and saying “Ow! Oneechan, using a magic gemstone to allow yourself to physically cast magic just to open the door is so wasteful, you know as well as I do how rare and hard to come by those energy sources are.”

“You can either complain after you close the door and join the conversation or complain later after I finish with my colleague from work, either way shut the door.” Kuromotoma states to her younger sister.

Mikoto gets up off the floor and pats herself down to fix her clothing before closing the door and sitting next to Ichiro and Ayame at the table as before Ayame introduces her to Ichiro “This High Schooler is my baby sister, Mikoto Kuromotoma.”

Ayame places the gemstone on the table and says “This gemstone is a crystallisation of the energy that fuels the magic my kind use and is just one of the methods by which we can bypass our usual limitations but they’re rare and extremely valuable as well as limited so we don’t use them lightly.”

“Mikoto here will be helping with our plan.” Ayame explains gesturing to her sister who bows to Ichiro and says “It’s good to finally meet you Tanisuzu-san, I may be young but I’m more than willing to assist you in this case given what happened to our parents.”

“I’m not as talented at certain kinds of Magic as my older sister but I’m still able to cast some useful spells even if they aren’t as powerful or efficient as what my sister can cast.” Mikoto states as she explains her abilities and role in this situation before she continues “At least when it comes to casting spells on the physical plane, but when it comes to digital planes like the internet I can cast spells as freely as I wish with little restriction as long as I have a gemstone.”

“Did you just say you can cast spells on the internet!?” Ichiro exclaims loudly from sheer shock.

Mikoto bursts out laughing and smacking the table with her hand before looking Ichiro in the eye as she says “Your generation are all so naive.”

“The Internet may be an artificial place but it’s a place nonetheless and it’s made of energy that make up the 1’s and 0’s encoded into that energy, it’s perfectly accessible via energetic phenomena like certain spells.” Mikoto explains with a wry look on her face and a look of enlightenment in her eyes as she continues “I studied Computer Sciences in my school years and discovered as a middle school student that I could cast spells on the internet using what latent magic exists there and after years of study and hard work I’ve achieved much and am planning to attend Tokyo Institute of Technology”

“What she’s also leaving out is she also used to play Tabletop Games that cover such subjects as the vastness of the various planes of existence that make up a given world which lead to her discovery.” Ayame states before saying “She’ll be our tech support for this investigation.”

To Be Continued