Chapter 1

FRIDAY

Detective Yamamoto nursed her can of beer as she watched Tomoko Tachibana's most recent news video. The news today was quite grim, and in accordance with that, Tomoko had dispensed with her usual upbeat, energetic demeanor and adopted a more somber expression.

“Regarding missing high school student Katsumi Hirabayashi, there are still no leads. It is widely believed that the kidnappers who produced the ransom note believe Miss Hirabayashi to be affiliated with Hirabayashi Industries, which is not the case,” said Tomoko in the video.

“That's grim,” muttered Satoshi from over at his makeshift desk. “Imagine being kidnapped because people thought you were related to a rich family.” Detective Yamamoto nearly responded in agreement when she was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Could you get that, assistant?” she asked. Satoshi stood up, stretching as he did, and walked towards the front door. When he opened it, he was greeted by the sight of a girl. She stood significantly shorter than he did and had light blonde hair, although he could see that the roots of her hair were actually brown. She was dressed as any local student might be if uniform modification was allowed, and judging by her uniform, Satoshi guessed she was a high school student.

“Hello,” he said. “How can I help you?”

“My cat Taro is missing,” she said without preamble.

“Then you’ve come to the right place,” he said. “Please follow me.” Satoshi led the girl into the detective’s office where Detective Yamamoto gestured for her to sit.

“I understand your cat’s gone missing?” the detective asked, shaking the last drop out of her can, before starting to reach for another.

“My cat Taro, yes,” said the girl. “He’s been gone since Tuesday.” Detective Yamamoto frowned.

“Tell me about your cat,” said the detective. “Do you normally let him outside?”

“Yeah,” replied the girl, before quickly adding, “but he’s never been gone for more than a day!” Detective Yamamoto soaked in the information thoughtfully as she sipped.

“So it’s been three days?” the detective mused. “What does your cat look like?” The girl offered a shrug.

“He’s black and white with green eyes. He just looks like an ordinary cat!” Satoshi, by now, had sat back down behind his makeshift desk and began writing down all the information. In all likelihood, Detective Yamamoto wouldn’t want or need it at any point in the future, but he felt it might be helpful to have something for him to refer to. Looking back at his notes, he did indeed come to the conclusion that the cat she described was rather nondescript.

“Do you have any idea of where your cat might be?” Detective Yamamoto asked. The girl shook her head dejectedly.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t really know where he goes when he’s out. He just sort of roams around and does cat things.”

“Cat things?” the detective asked. Satoshi already could envision a set of activities that could be classed as ‘cat things’. Begging for and stealing food, lying in the sun, teasing neighborhood dogs, and terrorizing local wildlife all sprang to mind.

“You know,” said the girl, flapping her hands expressively. “Being nosy and exploring.” Detective Yamamoto nodded.

“So you have reason to believe your cat would poke his nose where it doesn’t belong?”

“Taro’s always been mischievous,” said the girl. Detective Yamamoto nodded again as if a thought had occurred to her. Then she pulled open a drawer in her desk and began rummaging around. Belatedly, she pulled out a battered business card and passed it across her desk.

“Here’s my card,” said Detective Yamamoto. “You can call me at this number. Do you have any contact information?” The girl paused, but ultimately wrote her phone number down on a piece of paper Satoshi had helpfully proffered.

“Great,” said the detective. “If you want to know how the search is going, feel free to call me. Otherwise, I’ll call you when we find Taro.”

“Thank you, detective,” said the girl, before standing and excusing herself from the agency. With the girl gone, Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi shared a glance.

“It’s been a while since the last missing pet case,” sighed the detective.

“We were probably due for one,” Satoshi shrugged.

“Yeah,” agreed Detective Yamamoto. “Probably no sense in putting it off.”

~~~

Once she had gotten properly dressed, Detective Yamamoto led Satoshi outside. To her disgust it was a dreary sort of day, where the whole sky was carpeted in dark clouds and a fine misting of rain ensured that everything was constantly saturated. The detective ducked back into the agency just long enough to grab an umbrella, which she opened with alacrity.

“Well, assistant,” she said. “If there’s anything good about the weather, it’s that a cat wouldn’t want to be out in it.” Satoshi nodded, giving a meaningful glance at the umbrella, which he reckoned was too small to comfortably share.

“Where should we look first?” he asked, redirecting the detective to the topic at hand.

“The butcher shop?” the detective suggested. Immediately, Satoshi questioned her motives. He wasn’t keen on paying for and carrying groceries again, much less in this weather.

“What?” she asked, noticing Satoshi’s scowl. “If I were a cat, I would hang out and look for scraps. There all sorts of little bits and bones that get thrown out.” Considering this new piece of information, Satoshi relented.

“Alright,” he said, “but we aren’t shopping.” Out of the corner of his eye, Satoshi could have sworn the detective scowled as though he had seen through her intentions.

~~~

As it turned out, the butcher was a bust. Satoshi, remembering how the last search for a missing cat had devolved, had abstained from investigating the dumpsters where the refuse and scraps of meat were disposed of. In fairness, Detective Yamamoto didn’t investigate them especially thoroughly either, but he certainly couldn’t fault her for that.

“No luck?” he asked as she walked back over to him.

“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “I guess we’ll just have to do things the hard way.” Satoshi sighed.

“Well, where to next?” This was the tough part. The butcher shop was normally a nexus for all sorts of stray cat activity, so if that had been a bust, then anywhere was just as good a point to start as any other random place.

“Let’s go down here,” gestured Detective Yamamoto, indicating a row of townhouses. At this time of day, any sunlight would fall on the window sills. Satoshi mentally followed the detective’s line of reasoning and assumed all the sunlight would make for nice place to have a catnap.

A cursory walk down the street hadn’t yielded much of anything worthwhile, as there were no cats readily apparent, and Satoshi didn’t feel comfortable looking in through people’s windows. It also occurred to him – belatedly – that perhaps the rascally cat found a second home to hang out in, or perhaps that someone assumed he was a stray and took him in. He didn’t want to voice this possibility lest it weigh on the detective, but Satoshi had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Detective Yamamoto asked. She stopped walking and Satoshi, who had been lost in thought, nearly collided with her from behind.

“What?” he asked, snapping back to reality. Detective Yamamoto answered by pointing forward. There was a group of police officers and they seemed to be going door to door. They would knock, and if the participant answered the door, they would ask a few questions. After the questions were answered to their satisfaction, they would move on.

“What do you think this is all about?” Satoshi asked, scratching his head.

“Probably that poor girl who got kidnapped,” said Detective Yamamoto. Satoshi was about to concede she might be right and expand on the conversation when Detective Yamamoto started and ran up towards the officers.

“Hello Hitomi!” the detective said cheerfully as she approached her diminutive associate on the police force. “Seen any stray cats lately?”

“Hanako,” grumbled Officer Ishioka. “We are a bit busy at the moment.” Despite standing over a full head shorter than Detective Yamamoto, Officer Ishioka endeavored to project some manner of authority. The effect was undercut but Detective Yamamoto ruffling her normally pin-straight dark blue hair.

“Oh, come on, Hitomi,” she said in a vain attempt to placate the officer. “We’re all working on our own cases.” Officer Ishioka swatted the hand away.

“We’re busy,” she reiterated. “The orders have come down to find that missing girl, and with what little we have to go on, we’re going door by door. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are a great many door we have to knock on.” For a moment, Detective Yamamoto considered the predicament. If she had been given the task of knocking on every door in city, she might just resign instead.

“Well,” said Detective Yamamoto, slightly more subdued. “Good luck with that. I’ll let you know if I stumble across anything.”

“Thank you,” said Officer Ishioka curtly. She quietly turned away from the detective and proceeded to the next door with the other officers following closely behind her. Satoshi, who had kept his distance out of respect, approached the detective.

“Shall we keep looking?” he asked. The detective nodded, but it seemed as though her mind was more focused on that kidnapping case rather than the missing cat at hand.

~~~

After a few fruitless hours of searching, Satoshi was beginning to tire in earnest. Detective Yamamoto, to her credit, continued searching as efficiently as always, but she still seemed a little unfocused.

It turns out Satoshi was to witness a demonstration of just how unfocused she was, as while the pair were searching through the umpteenth alleyway of the day, the detective somehow managed to bump into the only other person in the place. It wasn’t as if the alley was an especially spacious place, but there was still something remarkable about stumbling into the only other living soul – save for Satoshi, of course – in the entirety of the alley.

“Excuse me,” said the detective passively.

“Sorry,” said the man. “It was my fault.

It wasn’t, thought Satoshi, but he didn’t think Detective Yamamoto would approve of him pointing that fact out.

Now that she had been physically shaken back to reality, Detective Yamamoto scrutinized the man. He was a tall, thin man, with a dark pencil mustache. He was dressed for the weather and all of his clothing was dark and nondescript.

“Are you looking for something?” Detective Yamamoto asked, seemingly just to make conversation. The man did not look up from the dumpster he had been rooting through. Satoshi, had he not been in a position to search through several dumpsters before, might have assumed the man was homeless and starving, but he knew better.

“My cat’s gone missing,” said the man, still not looking up.

“Oh yeah?” asked the detective conversationally. “What kind of cat?”

“I don’t know about the breed,” said the man, finally prying his eyes from the dumpster, which had proven to be devoid of anything useful. “He’s black and white.”

“What’s his name?” Detective Yamamoto asked. The man froze visibly. A moment passed where there was a look of concern on his face. The man turned to face the detective fully.

“It’s personal,” he said. “You know, pet names, banking security questions.” Satoshi was mollified by this response, but Detective Yamamoto nodded more slowly.

“Fair enough,” said Detective Yamamoto. “Good luck finding your cat!”

“Thanks,” said the man tersely. Satoshi wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but there was something in the man’s tone of voice like a hint of aggression or irritation, neither of which was really directed at the detective. The man stalked off, leaving through the mouth of the alley and presumably continuing his search.

“Tell me, assistant,” said the detective in a quiet, serious voice, after the man was certainly out of earshot. “What do you make of all this?”

“A man looking for his cat?” Satoshi asked hesitantly.

“A man who won’t share the name of his cat? A man who looks more angry than concerned?” Satoshi considered these statements, but it seemed to him that Detective Yamamoto trying to formulate some bizarre scenario where this man was somehow nefariously involved in her case.

“Surely you’re not implying we’re both after the same cat,” said Satoshi with disbelief.

“If we are, then he’s trying to steal my client’s cat,” she said with certainty. Satoshi sighed. He could tell from her tone of voice that there was little point in arguing.

“Whatever you say,” he said. “Let’s keep looking.”

~~~

Several more hours passed as Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi continued searching. After the failure to find the cat at the butcher shop and the other places they had searched when previously searching for missing pets, Detective Yamamoto decided that perhaps anywhere that had food a cat might like would prove a good place to look. With that goal in mind, she and Satoshi scoured every grocery and convenience store either of them could think of. To Satoshi’s dismay in particular, they maintained a similar level of success in finding the missing cat.

Heedless of their surroundings – currently the muddy loading dock area behind a particularly large grocery store – Detective Yamamoto flopped onto the ground.

“Where the hell could that stupid cat be?” grumbled the detective, more to let off steam rather than genuinely asking for her assistant’s input. Satoshi shrugged in response and knelt down beside her.

“Maybe you should get up?” he suggested. “Lying here won’t help us find the cat.” The detective let Satoshi know what precisely she thought of that idea with the look she gave him, but as if on cue, a cat meowed, grabbing the pair’s attention.

“Is that...?” the detective asked, lifting her head up off the ground.

“I think so,” said Satoshi. True to the description the had received, this cat was a mix of black and white and had green eyes. Of course, such coloration in a cat was hardly uncommon, but being the beggars they were, Satoshi and Detective Yamamoto couldn’t afford to be choosers and let this pass.

“Here’s the plan,” said Detective Yamamoto quietly, as she propped herself up on her elbows and started to get up. “You approach the cat and distract it. I’ll sneak up behind it and grab it.”

“Sounds good,” said Satoshi, standing back up to his full height. The pair broke off, and Satoshi returned to a slight crouching posture as he walked slowly towards the cat they assumed to be Taro. He held out one hand invitingly, slightly cupped, in hopes that it would attract the cat’s attention.

“Come here, Taro,” he said softly. “Pss, pss, pss.” Taro remained firmly rooted to the spot, sitting and looking at Satoshi. If he was any judge, the cat seemed slightly bemused by this stranger approaching him, using his given name, and acting all friendly. Nevertheless, even if the cat did not approach Satoshi, neither did it run away. For his part, this was all that was needed.

Detective Yamamoto, meanwhile, slunk off to the right, taking a wide route to flank the animal. As Satoshi captured it’s attention, she crept as quickly and quietly as she could manage. Her intention was to move herself outside the cat’s range of vision, ideally behind it, but as she reached her intended position, she saw the cat’s ears swivel to point behind it.

“Gotcha!” she declared, lunging forward and reaching down. At first, it seemed like a sure thing that she would be able to snag the cat and put an end to the case, but quick as a flash, the cat sprung and bounded away from her. So focused was she on catching the cat that Detective Yamamoto overbalanced herself and toppled forwards onto the pavement with a loud exclamation of distaste.

As she toppled, Satoshi stood back up to his full height.

“Are you alright, detective?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about me!” the detective responded testily. “Catch that cat!” Satoshi’s attention returned to Taro, who – by now – looked thoroughly spooked. Satoshi reached up to grab the cat, but it shied away from his grasp. It didn’t cut and run, as anyone might have expected, but that cat was now clearly wary of both him and the detective.

Detective Yamamoto stumbled to her feet, one hand clutching her cheek, which now sported a little scrape from its impromptu rendezvous with the ground. As she surveyed the situation, she was happy – or at least as happy as she could be – to see that the cat was bounded by her and her assistant on either side. The cat still faced Satoshi, seemingly viewing him as the bigger threat.

Good, thought the detective. We can make this work.

“Assistant,” she said quietly, so as not to unduly alarm Taro. “Distract the cat and I’ll grab him.” Satoshi nodded silently, crouching down again. He raised his hands up in a vaguely threatening manner to hold the cats attention and took a vanishingly small step forward. As he did so, Taro took up a defensive posture, clearly fearing that this may become a fight.

Before anything could happen, either Satoshi making a move or the cat running off, Detective Yamamoto swooped down and grabbed the cat around the torso, hauling it up and back. Immediately, the cat gave a startled cry and began to squirm intensely.

“Gotcha!” exclaimed the detective triumphantly, wrapping both arms around the cat as it squirmed and struggled. As she held the wriggling creature, something batted her on the chest, something small and hard, but distinct from the cat.

“Good catch, detective!” said Satoshi. As he approached, he noticed a bemused expression on the detective’s face. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Assistant,” she asked. “Is Taro wearing anything? Or maybe is there something stuck on Taro?” Taking a better look at the cat, it seemed as though he was wearing something around his neck. Not like a collar, which would have been normal if not common, but more like a piece of jewelry.

“Hold still,” Satoshi grumbled as he grabbed the silver pendant and disentangled it from the cat. Turning it over in his hands, it became clear that it was no mere pendant, but a locket. Fumbling for the clasp that held it closed, he finally managed to open it. As he saw the figures in the pictures within it, his mouth fell open in shock.