Case found

August 2011, Shachihata housing, Japan.

Civil Society Of Investigators

09:34 AM—

"Sir!"

The ceiling lights of the hallway flickered. A woman, wearing a suit, ran on the red matted floor as it observed the sounds made by her heels.

"Sir!" She squealed again. This time the file in her hand fumbled. The string tying up the papers came out.

"Ah—" she was about to trip over, the paper falling from her hands.

"... Ow.." she clutched her knee. Despite the floor being covered with a mat, a part of her skin on the knee got peeled off.

CLICK. A door, parallel to her slammed body, creaked open.

"... Yeah, print it before the next presentation.." said a man, his white shirt half-tucked inside his black pants.

His face had several wrinkles on it, despite looking so young.

"... Markie!" He yelled at the woman, his lips contorted. Markie, the woman on the floor, stood up.

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of a presentation!" The man stomped forward, his cheeks developing more wrinkles.

"I... I'm looking for the president.." Markie stammered, faced with a twisted expression of anger that she'd never seen before.

"I-Inugai-san..." Markie spoke, standing up.

"I don't know where he is." The white shirt man, Inugai-san as he was known, folded his hands and leaned against the door. His hands held the papers Markie dropped.

As Inugai's eyes moved from left to right, Markie's focus on him increased. She clutched the rest of her papers.

"H-Hey... Give that—"

"Wait!" Inugai pushed her trembling fingers backward, his eyes widening at the words he read.

Huh? Markie's eyes softened, she hadn't expected this reaction.

A while passed. Then the door suddenly knocked from the inside.

"Sir, are you done? We are ready with the—"

"Just wait for five minutes." Inugai interjected the inside person.

"O-Okay.." The person stammered, his footsteps fading away from the door.

"Where did you find these?" Inugai turned to Markie. His eyes looked accusatory, criticizing her.

"T-The net!" Markie raised her tone, but quickly regretted it.

".. net? Oh.. the internet?" However Inugai's eyes and attention were more towards that paper he held.

"Give me the rest." He ordered, and snatched the remaining from her. "H-Here you go." Markie let him.

"Hey!" Suddenly Inugai knocked back, making the people inside flinch.

"Yes sir?!" They all spoke at once.

"Come out, we're heading to the office!" Saying that, Inugai took off, the pile clutched in one hand and Markie's palm in the other.

The door opened just a bit later, with a man peeking out.

"Quick!" Inugai stopped, and looked back, barking at him.

"..!" Almost everyone inside packed their belongings in a matter of seconds. Three men and two woman, hurriedly followed him.

10:12 AM—

"Would you like anything else?" A waiter said, bowing to a white haired woman sitting behind the desk.

"Uh, do we have pancakes?" She said, her gaze lowering rowards the man.

"At the shelf, ma'am. Should I bring one?" The man ignored the wink she just gave him.

"Hm. Go." She waved, but her lips firmly closed, "Harr—"

"President!"

The door banged open. The white haired woman, flinched back. "Huh?!" She was bewildered, seeing the horde of her employees waiting to gush in.

"Hey you, ask be—" As the waiter tried to intervene with his stern tone, Inugai walked with the pile.

"Markie, Yasami, come!" He waved back and matched towards the desk.

"Ma'am." He said, his tone so firm that it almost sounded like a groan.

"Yeah?" The woman had recovered from the shock, she was tapping the desk. His eyes locked at her eyes, slightly widening.

"S-Sorry." Inugai stepped back, realising he leaned too closer but still—

"Please look at it. It's very, very important."

As the president stood up, immediately Markie and Yasami as well as the waiter surrounded the table.

They read the headline, some with a twist in their lips and others mostly confused.

"Bio-hazard?" The president murmured, "hey, wasn't this the same as last year's 2001. Didn't we abandon it?" Her face formed a skeptical look.

"Yes, but as you can see—" Inugai turned the pile, flipped up to a page filled with only black and white imagery.

"— these're taken from 2008. This locked-up factory you see behind this red tape was where *that* photo was found."

The president blinked. "Are you kidding me?" She flicked her chin, with a small smile. Thinking that Inugai would just back off as usual, but...

"No ma'am." Both Yasami and Markie nodded.

"... Then, that... Oh my god! Hey bring that file!" She suddenly shouted, pushing aside Markie.

"The 2001, right?" Someone casually said.

"Ofcourse!" She yelled at them.

"No way, Iris Ukrena and...Jack bacillus, why are they.." The president fumbled.

"I'm currently working on it, ma'am, but... I can say it for sure— the footprints, the fingerprints and the hair samples—" Markie's usual humbleness disappeared, her eyes widened, "It matches them terribly." She locked her eyes with hers.

The room felt silent.

"All the way to Japan?" Someone among murmured. They too sounded skeptical.

"But when? And how?" The white haired woman questioned.

The images inside the papers pointed towards towards a certain locked up bio-chemical factory, where this single image of Iris and Jack, and their hair and blood samples on the floor.

"I can't say enough about it. There exists almost no data about them being seen after 2004 onwards." Markie spoke, lowering her tone.

But then suddenly, the president's eyes twitched.

"Hold on... Almost?" Her eyes tilted.

"Yes almost. Because most airlines except some govt. Operated ones refuse to handover customer data."

No sooner she said that, the woman thumped her desk.

"Couldn't you say that sooner?" Her tone sterned.

Everyone stood solemn, some looking at the papers and others waiting for the president to speak.

"...how many were there anyway?" The president turned from the window.

"I think only Japan Airlines..." Markie said meekly. Others listened to them conversing.

"Figures.." The president said after hearing her whisper.

"Anyway, remove that file from the 'abandoned folder' we're working on it again!"

The moment she ordered that, everyone got to work. Their expressions were filled with determination, subtle fear and confusion. The files were shuffled, 2001 was kept in the 'Currently Working' folder.

However after that, the file never came out of that folder. The team, afterwards, in 2018, dispersed for an unusual reason— just a year later after publishing the first hypothesis of the 'Jack-Iris' case.

"I can't."

An anonymous twitter message, tagging the hypothesis, tweeted. It became famous afterwards but ultimately lost its appeal due to anonymity.