Interlude: an officer's first investigation

The sun had just begun to rise. Clouds, though few in numbers, were spread across the orange tinted sky. Flocks of birds were traveling through the cold air brought by the wind, their crows echoed throughout the relatively quiet streets of the city; As for the traffic, there were driving few cars than usual. Stores began opening, as people went about their business.

The same could be said of Kenta Yojiro, who had just finished eating his breakfast. He grabbed his plate, and went to wash it. After he was done, he went to his bedroom. He smiled as he looked at the black uniform laying on his bed. He wiped it with his hand several times, cleaning some dirt of it, and began to put it on.

After he had dressed himself, he checked the time on his phone. Seeing how late it already was, he hurried to the front door. Before he opened it, he looked to his side. A portrait of someone sitting on a chair was hanging on the wall, Kenta turned towards it. A wry smile formed on his face as he began to speak.

“I’m off to work..” he said, as he put on the hat he held in his hand. “Mother.” he looked at the portrait for a final time before exiting his home, his expression stiffened and the smile slowly faded.

As Kenta was walking on the sidewalk, few people greeted him after they noticed his uniform, Kenta returned a greeting back with a forced smile. After walking for about ten minutes, he had finally reached the center of the city, and was now standing at a traffic light as it just turned red.

Even though there weren’t many people the entire time he walked, the moment he blinked his eyes, he felt more people coming from behind him. With how long the light stayed red, by the time it finally turned green, Kenta found himself, quite literally, pushed forward by the massive crowd behind him.

When he managed to move out the way safely, he breathed out of relieve and cleaned the sweat from his forehead. Kenta slapped his uniform several times, as he finally reached his destination, the local police station.

The seven-floor building was massive. Compared to other buildings in the surrounding area, the police station really stood out like a sore thumb. It gave off a sense of elegance that one could only admire. The outside was completely covered with shining mirrors, all held together with concrete pillars. Greenery were planted as well, emitting its prestigious, and modern look.

Kenta gulped as he glanced at the monstrous building before him, and quickly hurried himself towards its entrance. There at the security halt, he scanned his badge and followed the que. After waiting in line for a while, he was allowed to pass through. He hastened towards the elevator, but was presented with yet another line.

Kenta clicked his tongue, as the arrow facing down was lit up, the floor number displayed right next to it. The elevator was on the third floor, and it began descending slowly. After waiting for several minutes, the doors finally opened, and everyone began entering it. Just like before at the crossroad, Kenta was pushed inside the elevator, it was completely cramped.

You can’t be serious now.. Kenta’s brow twitched as he yelled internally. After someone had pushed in the floor number, the elevator began ascending. When it reached the fourth floor, the elevator stopped and its door opened quickly. Kenta was the last one the exit the elevator, and promptly tidied his uniform. From there, he walked straight, passing several officers working at their desk, and quickly headed towards his assigned desk.

On the table he found a stack full of paper work, he sighed, his shoulders lumped. Reluctantly, he sat on his chair, and began working on his morning tasks; As the sounds of keys getting pressed echoed throughout the floor, a rather grey and empty feeling began glooming over the workers, as a normal day at work had truly begun.

                                                                    …

Several hours had passed, as Kenta had just finished reporting the last document on his desk, it was exactly at that moment when exhaustion had finally caught up to him. His head dropped face first on the desk, his forehead accidently hitting the spacebar on his keyboard.

“Finally…” he muttered, as a smile appeared on his face.

However, as his mind was slowly dreaming away, he was brought back by a deep voice calling to him.

“Yo, Kenta,” Kenta shrieked as he immediately straightened his back, he turned his head, looking right at the voice. “The boss is asking for you.” it was the supporting supervisor that handled Kenta’s department, Kito Yamaharu. Kito patted the back of his head, as he looked at Kenta apologetically.

Kenta quickly got up from his chair, and bowed to Kito. He hurried towards the main office on the second floor.

When Kenta reached the office, he knocked on the door several times, and when someone from inside told him to enter, he took a deep breath. After the nerves subsided, he opened the door, whilst excusing himself.

There he found the superintendent sitting quietly at his desk. The desk was quite wide, and had an L-shape, it was finished off with a smooth oakwood print. His monitor was placed diagonally, with a printer to his side. Right in front of the superintendent, a small stack of papers were spread across his desk.

The silence prevailed, as the superintendent kept a close eye on Kenta, while Kenta was struggling to keep himself together, since the pressure the superintendent placed on him was too much for him to bear. Beads of sweat appeared across Kenta’s face as the superintendent finally spoke to him.

“State your name.” the superintendent said with a deep voice, his tone void of emotions.

Flustered, Kenta responded: “Kenta Yojiro, sir.”, his back completely straight.

The superintendent turned his gaze to the monitor, and began typing on his keyboard. After he pressed the enter-key, he supported his head with his left hand, as he kept scrolling the mouse wheel.

When the superintendent finally pressed the left mouse button, he sat up straight, and looked Kenta straight in the eyes.

“I took a look at your profile, and is it true that you’ve been here for a while?” the superintendent asked, his tone still emotionless.

“Yes, three months to be exact, sir.” Kenta responded.

“Good, now let’s see,” the superintendent turned his head towards his monitor. “You are mostly responsible for administering and reporting of small crimes, am I right?” the superintendent glanced back at Kenta, as he adjusted his glasses.

Kenta clicked his tongue internally, as he kept up a straight face. While yes, Kenta was technically a police officer, he was only assigned the administrative duties for his district. In other words, he has never been out on the field, not even once.

“Yes, so far I have been handling the administrative work for our department.” Kenta answered.

“Any experience on the field?” the superintendent looked back at his monitor, as he began scrolling again.

“No, sir.” the superintendent grunted at Kenta’s response, making him even more restless.

The room turned silent as the superintendent was typing on his keyboard, and Kenta desperately stopping his legs from giving out. After a while, the superintendent stopped typing and got up from his chair.

The superintendent went towards Kenta, and left quite a gap. He kept staring at Kenta, his eyes completely darkened. The room grew colder as it became difficult to breath. An immeasurable pressure was dropped on Kenta, as his instincts began telling him to run away. A cold sweat began dropping down his spine.

After some time passed, the pressure suddenly dissipated and the air loosened. The superintendent finally spoke up.

“Alright, you’re good enough.” he wore a soft smile, as he looked Kenta in the eyes.

“P-pardon?” Kenta, however, stood there dumbfounded, as his mouth was left wide open.

“You can come in now.” the superintendent said, as he looked at the door behind Kenta.

The door suddenly opened, and someone entered the room. It was a woman wearing a tight uniform, her female features perfectly aligning around it. Her legs partly exposed by her relatively average sized skirt. She had red hair, and her beauty shone brightly. She shone off the air of a mature woman.

The sound of her heels tapping the floor echoed as she got closer, walking past Kenta, and stopped next to the superintendent. She turned to directly face Kenta, her hands glued behind her back. The superintendent smiled as he saw how flustered Kenta was.

“This one here is a detective active on the field.” the superintendent said, as he pointed with his hand to the detective.

“Hello, I’m Ai Sayuri. Pleased to meet you” Ai smiled brightly as she finished her sentence.

“I-I’m.. K-ke-enta Yo-oji-ro. Pleased to meet you too.” Kenta, whose blood began rushing through his head, stuttered as he was captivated by Ai’s beauty, his tone rose ever so slightly. He bowed to hide the shame he felt.

Despite his embarrassing introduction, the two standing before him didn’t say a word. Only Ai giggled a bit as she walked towards him.

“No need to be so on edge. Take it easy now partner.” she put her hand on his shoulder as she crouched in front him.

The awkwardness slowly disappeared from his mind, but when his mind finally thought back on what Ai had just said, his eyes flew wide open, as he straightened his back in an instant.

“Partner?” Kenta narrowed his brows, his head tilted slightly.

“That’s right. From now on, you’ll be working together with Ai-san.” the superintendent grinned as he watched Kenta’s baffled expression.

“Huh?!” Kenta yelled at the superintendent’s comment. He really thought the superintendent was pulling his leg now. Kenta had hoped the superintendent was just joking, and was about to laugh it off, but when he realized the superintendent really meant what he just said, Kenta turned his gaze to his supposed ‘partner’.

“Welcome to the team, partner.” Ai had just gotten up, and held her hand out, whilst smiling brightly.

Huh??!! Kenta screamed internally. What Kenta didn’t realize though, was that his inner screams echoed throughout the entire vicinity.

                                                                    …

“Welcome our newest member, cheers!” Ai yelled as she held a cup up in the air, as both ends of her mouth curled into a grin.

“Um.. We’re the only ones here….” Kenta said, as he looked around the room. It was mostly empty, with small table at the center and a whiteboard on the side. The ones in the room were the two at the table, sitting across from each other.

Suddenly, Kenta felt a painful sensation appear on his cheek. He let out a cry.

“You don’t have to point that out!” Ai pinched Kenta’s cheek harder, as she pouted.

After Kenta pleaded to Ai, with his arms waving around, only then had Ai let him go.

“Anyways, let’s get down to business.” Ai said, as she ignored Kenta’s gaze, his cheek was pulsing a red tint.

The playful atmosphere suddenly turned serious, with Ai’s expression turning cold, her smile disappeared also. She turned around, and grabbed two documents. She turned to face Kenta, as she passed them to him. Kenta speed-read through them, and laid them back on the table.

He glanced back at the documents, and in the right corners of each document, pictures could be seen. One was a woman’s, and the other a mans. The documents contained their names, personal information, or in short everything.

“What about them?” Kenta asked hesitantly, he looked straight at Ai.

“They’ve been missing for several weeks now.” Ai said serious, as she tapped the table several times with her nail.

“What do we know so far?”

Ai looked at the pictures, and pointed first at the woman’s photo.

“The woman’s name is Naomi Watanabe, twenty-one years old. She was reported missing after her family came back from their vacation.” Ai then gazed at the other picture, pointing at it. “That one is Akira Nakamura, also twenty-one years old. He was last seen at his work, before he disappeared.”

Kenta stared intently at the documents before him, after a short while he turned his gaze to Ai.

“Any leads?” Kenta asked.

“No, not even one.” Ai responded, with her arms crossed.

“Could this all have been planned out? In the documents was stated that they were married, so it wouldn’t be all to weird that some creep who was jealous of their marriage may had a hand in this.” Akita stated, as he caressed his chin with his finger.

“Who knows, this could’ve been all a coincidence too.” Ai shrugged, as she closed her eyes.

“But something doesn’t really fit with me.”

“And that is?”

“It’s that they’re both missing. Isn’t it normal that only one gets pinned as the target?”

“Technically yes, in most situations usually one is taken hostage for ransom.”

“Well, doesn’t that make it weird that both of them are gone? I mean, what’s the point in going through all the trouble.”

“Based off of the information we currently have, we know that the wife went missing earlier than the husband. Maybe we’re looking past some clues or even walking on a complete different trail, however that doesn’t matter right now. For now, we should do whatever we can to find these two as soon as possible.” Ai stood up from her chair, before slamming the table with her fists.

“I’ll be counting on you, partner.” she said as she puffed her chest proudly, her right eye closed and raising her thumb.

“Yes, madame!” Kenta also got up from his chair, as he proudly yelled. However, Ai quickly pouted, as she glared at Kenta, her cheeks filling with air.

“Hey, no need for that formal-crap. Just call me Ai.”

“Yes, A-Ai-san,” Kenta rephrased, but Ai kept glaring at him. Her stare caused Kenta to sweat profusely. “A-Ai.”

And with that Ai stopped glaring at Kenta, as she got closer to him, wrapping her arm around his neck. Feeling her warmth from this close, caused Kenta’s body to heat up, as his face began slowly turning red. Seeing this cute reaction from him, Ai simply grinned as Kenta’s face turned even redder.

Are you watching me, mother?

Despite it being three months since Kenta finally became a police officer, those boring days behind a desk were now over, as he finally gets to be on the field. With his new partner by his side, he would finally be able to fulfill his mothers wish.

Kenta looked at Ai, and began to smile. Both enjoyed their little celebration as they quickly went back to work in a great mood, however.. What they didn’t realize what for thorn, and dark path they would be walking on.