Detective Yamamoto and the Oni Part 3

The preparations were set. Detective Yamamoto's plan was a simple one, but given the role he had to play, Satoshi felt that the detective sought to create a sense of dramatic tension that wasn't strictly necessary. Nevertheless, the detective had gone to some lengths to set things up, albeit mostly at Satoshi's expense, and now the trap was ready to be sprung. Detective Yamamoto had even called in a favor or two just to ensure that things went smoothly.

Naturally, Satoshi and Detective Yamamoto had brought the client in on the plan, even if she wasn't participating. The detective's rationale dictated that it was better the client knew and could stay out of the way, rather than blunder into the middle of a delicate situation when things were tense. Satoshi had to confess that he preferred that approach, even if it assumed little of the client.

For the time being, they could only wait. After stumbling, in the detective's case quite literally, upon the culprit's cache, Satoshi and Yamamoto had made great effort to make it seem as though the site had never been tampered with, much less discovered. This wasn't strictly pivotal; Detective Yamamoto had intimated that she suspected the culprit was not a stickler for details, as evidenced by how obvious the pit was if one paid proper attention. Nevertheless, it wouldn't do to tip off the guilty party if it could be avoided.

Satoshi and Detective Yamamoto were currently being entertained by the client in her parlor. It was a nice enough room, but Satoshi just wanted to get everything over with. Detective Yamamoto seemed content enough with her current surroundings, helped in no small part by the six pack of beer she had brought along.

Soon enough, the sun began to set and as day turned to night, Detective Yamamoto resigned herself to the fact that it was now time to enact the plan. She finished the can she was holding and turned to address Satoshi and the client.

"It looks like it's time," she said, slurring slightly. "Are you ready, assistant?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Satoshi replied. He reflected briefly that somehow he had gotten stuck with doing the bulk of the work, but he soothed himself by remembering this benefitted the client. With a word of thanks and admiration from the client, Satoshi and Detective Yamamoto moved towards their respective positions. The detective, conveniently, got to stay nice and hidden by a clump of trees not too far away from one of the sold houses. Satoshi, on the other hand, was the bait. He tried to inject an air of confidence in his demeanor as he approached the hill. When he climbed to the top and swept his flashlight around, he caught sight of what could only be the oni. Satoshi took a deep break and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Monster!" Satoshi bellowed as loudly and as threateningly as he could. "I have come to slay you! Come and meet your doom!" The oni's head turned ponderously in Satoshi's direction, and then it began to lumber in his direction.

Perfect, thought Satoshi. All according to plan.

As the oni plodded towards the hill, Satoshi turned and started running back in the direction of Detective Yamamoto, glancing over his should occasionally. The oni lagged behind. He and the detective assumed that it would likely be slow, and therefore present little danger of catching up to Satoshi once he taunted it, but it exceeded their expections in its sluggishness.

For a moment, Satoshi considered slowing down. He wanted to present a believable chase. If he ran too quickly he might lose the oni or it might spot the trap before it fell into it. He would have to go to some lengths to make this appear realistic.

By the time Satoshi reached the clump of trees where Detective Yamamoto lay in wait, he peered over his shoulder and noticed that the oni was still some distance away. Thinking quickly, Satoshi devised a cunning strategy. He hoped that whoever wore that oni suit, their vision would be somewhat impaired.

Satoshi tripped, deliberately and pretended as though he had twisted his ankle. He rolled on the ground briefly and cried in pain. Then he stood back up, albeit shakily and set off hobbling as fast as he could while pretending to limp. In reality, his acting wouldn't have fooled a five year old, but he hoped that a combination of it being dark out and the oni still being some distance away would lend some credibility to his deception.

As Satoshi continued to limp along, he glanced over his shoulder and saw that the oni was now decidedly gaining ground on him.

Good, Satoshi thought. I hope the detective's ready.

Whether or not Detective Yamamoto was truly ready, Satoshi was about to find out. He passed between two trees that stood about six feet apart from one another before pretending to trip again. To really sell it, he rolled onto his back, clutched at what he pretended was his wounded ankle, and screamed.

"Assistant, are you alright?" Detective Yamamoto whispered from her hiding place. Satoshi shushed her harshly.

"Don't give your position away! The oni's almost here!" Satoshi hissed, trying to keep his voice down. Detective Yamamoto returned her full attention to the plan. The oni was about thirty paces away from Satoshi and closing quickly. He had held up his end of the plan, and now everything relied on her, and specifically her ability to time things correctly.

Satoshi now crawled further away. The detective assumed he sought to help further by trying to draw and maintain the oni's attention. She absentmindedly thought that she really couldn't ask for a better assistant, and while she did so, she very nearly missed her opportunity. The oni was now passing through the two trees Satoshi had hobbled through moments before.

Heaving with all of her might, Detective Yamamoto pulled taught the rope that she had strung between the two trees earlier. The rope sprung up from its innocuous hiding place on the ground and caught the oni's back foot as it strode by. Just as Satoshi and the detective had planned, the rope entangled the oni's leg and it tumbled forward, crashing onto the ground.

Both Satoshi and the detective noticed straight away that the sound the oni's fall produced wasn't nearly as loud as one would expect for so massive an object.

"Oof!" exclaimed the oni, in a distinctly human-sounding voice. Of course, now that the oni was temporarily tripped, this was only the end of the first stage of the plan. Satoshi stopped pretending to be injured and doubled back over to the detective. Detective Yamamoto lept from her hiding place and began tying the rope around the oni's legs in an attempt to secure it in place. Satoshi, imitating something he had seen Officer Ishioka do before, grabbed one of the oni's wrists and wrenched it behind its back. The oni was now making noises like a man in pain.

Once the oni was sufficiently restrained and Detective Yamamoto felt confident that Satoshi also had a good grip on it, she sauntered out in front of it.

"Well, well, well, mister oni. You've been causing a lot of trouble." she said smugly. The oni did not respond aside from a pained grunt. "Once Officer Ishioka shows up, we'll find out who you truly are."

To her credit, Officer Ishioka showed up as promptly as Satoshi would have expected. She was none too happy to be called at this time of night, and to drive out into the sticks no less, but she became much more compliant when Detective Yamamoto reminded her of her debt. Predictably, Officer Ishioka's demeanor when she arrived was sour but civil.

"Detective Yamamoto," she said icily. "I see you have apprehended an oni."

"Right you are, officer," said the detective. Now that she had someone to tease, her spirits lifted back up to their usual level of cheeriness.

"Well, let's get on with it, who have you caught?" Officer Ishioka grabbed a pair of handcuffs from her belt in preparation for the arrest.

"Don't you want to guess who it is under the mask?" the detective asked.

"No." said Ishioka simply.

"You're no fun," the detective whined. "I wanted to impress you all, but since you don't like fun, it's the realtor." The detective gave away the culprits identity with no fanfare as she started to fiddle with the costume to try and remove the mask. Eventually, she found a zipper the went around the circumference of the neck and unzipped it. The mask flopped off to reveal a disheveled man, but one who bore an unmistakable resemblance to the man on the realtor's signs.

"Mister Realtor, I presume," said the detective with no small measure of pride. "You thought you had a good plan going. You would scare away the residents of this neighborhood, causing them to sell their homes at a loss and further drive down property values so you could snap them all up at a premium. I guess you didn't count on a master detective thwarting you."

"Shut up!" growled the realtor. "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!" Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi looked at him blankly.

"We aren't kids," said the detective, bemused.

"Congratulations, detective," Officer Ishioka said flatly. "I'll take things from here." She made to handcuff the man and read him his rights. Now that Officer Ishioka had gotten involved in earnest, Satoshi returned to his place beside the detective.

"I think you've got things handled, Officer," said Detective Yamamoto. "My assistant and I will be off. Don't stay up too late processing this guy." Satoshi didn't hear what precisely Officer Ishioka said under her breath, but thought he heard something about a dumb bimbo and her pet dog. He elected to ignore it.

~~~

As both Satoshi and Detective Yamamoto expected, the client was incredibly grateful to hear the good news. Given the poor woman's plight Satoshi was just glad to have her gratitude, as was the detective, for the most part, but payment certainly wouldn't hurt either, especially given all the driving they had done to come out here.

"I can't believe you managed to solve things so quickly!" exclaimed the woman.

"It's what I do best," said the detective, trying to adopt what she considered a modest pose.

"I guess that just leaves the matter of payment." The woman reached over and grabbed her purse. She rooted around it briefly before pulling out a wad of cash. "Will this be enough?" Detective Yamamoto eyed the wad of cash and briefly considered it. She grabbed the wad and handed a few bills back to the woman.

"This will cover our expences and everything," said the detective. Satoshi had been watching over her shoulder, and according to his estimates, the detective's generosity had won out again. Satoshi and the detective said their goodbyes and accepted the thanks of the woman again before heading back to the detective's car.

"Are you sure we got paid enough?" asked Satoshi. He didn't want to appear as though he was overly concerned with money, but Detective Yamamoto had a tendency to decline payment at the end of cases. It was a nice thing to do for the client, but things frequently got sticky around the time rent or other bills were due.

"I think so," said the detective. "Just enough for a nice meal and a few drinks." Well, if the detective wasn't complaining, he had no reason to nag or worry.

"Mind if I join you, detective?" Satoshi asked.

 "Why not? Running from an oni is hungry work."