Chapter 7 – A Detective's First Day
Day 13 - 579 students remaining.
The morning comes. Shuji, Maro Taro and Kanna awaken in an unrenovated building. Maro Taro starts the morning conversation.
“So, we can really stay here?”
Shuji nods his head.
“Mikuni said we can have it. But it’s our job to renovate it as the detective’s office.”
Maro Taro looks towards Kanna as he wonders about her thoughts on the situation. Kanna misinterprets the situation.
“Just because I’m a girl, it doesn’t mean I’m good at decorating.”
Maro Taro is quick to respond.
“No. I was just wondering if… never mind.”
Shuji begins to head outside.
“It’s time for the morning announcement.”
The clock on the monitors once again reaches zero. The voice begins to speak.
“The time is 7am. It is now day 13. The system has decided that Kanae Nishimura is the saddest person in the city. That is all.”
Though it is difficult for everyone, they continue their day as usual. Shuji and the others go to the food parcel drop to retrieve their food.
Upon arrival, Shuji notices some commotion at the location. Shuji manages to make his way with the others to the front of the crowd. One of Mikuni’s crew notices Shuji.
“Shuji. Follow me.”
Shuji, Kanna and Maro Taro follow the member of Mikuni’s crew. Once they get further away from the crowd, the member of Mikuni’s crew explains the situation.
“I hear from Mikuni that you’re now our resident detective.”
Shuji responds.
“Something like that.”
The crew member continues with a sense of urgency.
“Then I have your first job.”
Shuji is surprised as the crew member continues to talk.
“Somebody somehow made it through the guards and took 30 peoples worth of food parcels.”
Kanna and Maro Taro are surprised by this. Mikuni’s crew member continues to speak.
“Do you think that you can figure out who’s behind it and get them back for us? We could always ration pieces off of everybody else’s food packages but I’d rather we figure out who’s behind this.”
Shuji has a determined look on his face.
“Leave it to me.”
Shuji, Kanna and Maro Taro begin their investigation. Shuji begins to address the others.
“This shouldn’t be too complicated to figure out. It would be more efficient to split up so that we can resolve this quicker.”
Shuji looks towards Maro Taro.
“Maro Taro, can you go and speak to Mikuni. Figure out if there are any leads. Find out if anyone wants to wrong him.”
Maro Taro nods his head and heads towards Mikuni’s building. Shuji turns his focus to Kanna.
“We’ll go and speak to witnesses.”
Kanna and Shuji go to the food parcel site and begin to speak to the head guard on duty. Shuji begins questioning him.
“I’ve heard about your situation. Did you see anyone around when the food parcel dropped?”
The guard shakes his head.
“No. Nobody.”
Shuji begins to think about the usual routine and precautions that Mikuni takes.
“It’s too strange. Mikuni usually has people guarding the drop site. How could they have got past everyone undetected?”
Kanna voices her thoughts on the issue.
“Perhaps it was an inside job?”
The guard shakes his head.
“Impossible. Mikuni only puts his most loyal people on food duty.”
Shuji continues his investigation.
“Did anything strange happen around the time of the food parcel drop?”
The guard nods his head.
“Yeah. There was.”
Shuji urges for the guard to continue speaking as he elaborates further.
“I was on guard duty waiting for the food parcel to drop when suddenly a fight broke out around the corner. Me and the others went to go and break it up and by the time we came back, some of the food had been taken.”
Kanna grins at this and voices her opinion.
“I find it difficult to believe that the timing of that fight was a coincidence.”
Shuji nods his head in agreement.
“Can you take us to the site of the fight? Maybe the perpetrators are still there.”
The guard looks at the other guards to make sure that they are still guarding the site.
“Sure.”
The guard then proceeds to take Shuji and Kanna to the site of the fight. The guard points to somebody.
“He’s one of the people involved.”
Shuji looks over to the shady guy and calls out to him.
“Hey! You, over there. I need to speak with you.”
The shady guy begins to panic and starts to run away.
“Hey, stop!”
Shuji begins to give chase to the criminal. Despite the criminal’s best efforts, he is unable to escape Shuji, who gains on him and then jumps on him, knocking the shady guy to the ground. Shuji instantly begins to interrogate the shady figure.
“Is this your doing?”
The shady guy refuses to answer.
“Shut up. I’m not talking to you.”
Shuji begins to pull on the shady characters arm and causes him a lot of pain.
“Ow ow ow. Stop it, you’re gonna break my arm!”
Shuji continues his interrogation.
“Who set you up to this?”
The shady figure is almost about to say a name but decides against it.
“I can’t tell you. They’ll kill me.”
Shuji presses forward.
“Who? Give me a name!”
The shady guy begins to speak.
“Ok, ok. It was a guy named Ryota.”
Shuji releases his grip as the shady guy continues to speak.
“You can’t catch him. He’s a member of ‘his’ gang. Not even Mikuni deals with ‘him’ and his gang.”
Shuji is curious as to who the shady figure is talking about.
“Give me a name.”
The shady figure is about to speak.
“His name is…”
Meanwhile, at Mikuni’s building, Maro Taro has just exited the elevator and is walking towards Mikuni. Mikuni bares a face of disgust.
“What do you want?”
Maro Taro begins his inquisition.
“Shuji sent me. Do you know about the situation?”
Mikuni looks confused.
“What situation? Spit it out already.”
Maro Taro nervously begins to talk.
“Someone stole 30 peoples worth of food.”
Mikuni is clearly angry about this.
“How could this happen?”
Maro Taro continues questioning Mikuni.
“I was wondering If there is anyone that hates you in this city?”
Mikuni looks annoyed.
“Lots of people probably. There is one in particular that has been a thorn in my side. But are you sure you didn’t eat the 30 peoples worth of food yourself?”
Maro Taro ignores Mikuni’s sly insult and presses forward.
“You have to tell me who.”
Mikuni looks angry about the fact that someone he sees as unrespectable like Maro Taro has just tried to order him to do something.
“I don’t have to tell you anything, you fat weak imbecile. The only reason you’re here in my part of the city is because of my respect for Shuji.”
Mikuni begins to calm down slightly.
“Fine. I suppose you’ll pass what I say onto Shuji, so at least some use will come from me telling you.”
Mikuni elaborates further.
“I suppose so. There has been reports of a group in the far eastern side of the city who allegedly steal food from the people who live there.”
Mikuni clenches his fist.
“Their leader is called…”
Both Mikuni and the shady figure who is with Shuji utter the same name.
“…Kenro.”
After figuring out the likely perpetrators, Shuji and Kanna meet up with Maro Taro. They exchange information and solidify their theories. Shuji plans the next step.
“If Mikuni wont deal with him, then we don’t stand much of a chance against Kenro. However, we still might be able to catch Ryota off-guard and retrieve the food parcels.”
Maro Taro agrees but wonders about the plan.
“But, Shuji, isn’t the eastern part of the city under Kenro’s control.”
Shuji eases Maro Taro’s concerns.
“You’re right. However, we’re not going in there to fight them all. If it comes to it, then we’ll fight Ryota alone. But I would ideally like to make it out without even being spotted.”
The three of them head into the eastern part of the city. Kanna wonders about their plan’s efficiency.
“Wouldn’t it be easier if we split up? We could cover more ground that way.”
Shuji disagrees with Kanna.
“While that would be true, that also adds more risk. I don’t want to risk anyone getting captured. A lot of the people here aren’t exactly law-abiding citizens.”
They wander around the city for a while. Though they get some stares, they are able to avoid any extremely sketchy figures. Eventually they spot a figure with an arrogant walk and a mildly angry facial expression. Shuji instantly notices his suspiciousness.
“I’m going to tail that guy. Wait right here. If I call for backup then you know what to do.”
Maro Taro nods. Shuji notices the figure look around suspiciously then head into a house. Shuji heads over. Before the door could shut naturally, Shuji puts his hand in the door. Shuji then begins to open the door slowly and look around the property. Shuji then begin to walk around the property sneakily. He can’t see anybody around in any of the rooms.
Shuji heads up the stairs and opens one of the doors slowly. He then notices the missing 30 food packages sitting in the room.
“Found you.”
Shuji enters the room and walks towards the food packages. Unknown to Shuji, someone is standing behind the opened door.
“Bitch!”
The figure attacks Shuji. The sneak attack knocks Shuji to the ground. The figure then begins pummelling Shuji.
“Aghhhhhh!”
Shuji grabs a small piece of debris and throws it through the window. On the outside, Maro Taro and Kanna’s attention is instantly drawn to the sound of the breaking window. Maro Taro and Kanna rush over. A mysterious figure watches on as Maro Taro and Kanna run into the house.
Back in the house, Shuji is still being beaten by the man who has him pinned down. Shuji begins to feel weak but thinks to himself.
‘I have to hang in there. No matter what.’
Suddenly, Maro Taro heads through the door and throws the assailant to the floor. Maro Taro tries to hold the assailant down. Kanna suddenly comes through the door holding something.
“Found it. I knew they’d have it somewhere.”
Shuji looks to notice that Kanna is holding a roll of heavy-duty tape. Maro Taro begins to struggle.
“Hurry!”
Kanna and Maro Taro successfully subdue the culprit. After the culprit is subdued, they help Shuji up off of the ground.
“Are you feeling ok, Shuji?”
Shuji wipes his arm across his face before nodding his head. Shuji goes up to the culprit.
“You must be Ryota?”
Ryota is uncooperative.
“Fuck you. When Kenro finds out what you did, you’re dead.”
Shuji then addresses the others.
“We’ve caused too much commotion. Let’s get the food packages and get out of here.”
Suddenly the noise of a loud group talking is heard coming from down the street. Ryota then looks happy.
“Looks like they came just in time. You’re all screwed now.”
Kanna peaks out the window as their worst fears are confirmed. Kanna tuns towards Shuji.
“It’s some of Kenro’s crew.”
They realise that their situation is now compromised as the crew begin to head towards the house.
A voice calls from outside the building.
“Hey!”
Shuji recognises the voice and peaks out of the window. The voice calling was the mysterious Tamotsu Tano. He is signalling to the members of Kenro’s crew. Shuji wonders what is going on.
“What the hell is he doing?”
The members of Kenro’s crew head over to Tamotsu.
“What the hell do you want?”
Tamotsu begins to speak.
“Some idiots kidnapped Ryota. They grabbed him and went that way!”
Tamotsu points down the road ahead. The members of Kenro’s crew begin to run down the road.
Back in the house, Ryota tries to scream.
“You idiots! I’m over…”
Before Ryota could finish his sentence, Kanna outs tape over his mouth.
“Quick, let’s get the food packages and get out of here.”
Shuji, Kanna and Mato Taro each grab ten food parcels and head out of the house. After they leave the house, they head past Tamotsu. Shuji wonders to himself.
‘What’s your game, Tamotsu?’
Tamotsu stands still and smiles as they walk past.
Once Shuji and the others return to the city, they deliver the food packages to one of the guards.
“Thank you. Mikuni made the right choice when he made you the city detective.”
Shuji and the others have now gotten a taste of the things that await their journeys as the detectives of the city. The day passes by and then Shuji and the others head to sleep.
Somewhere else in the city, something is brewing.
After the lights go out and darkness approaches, a student walks through the street in an almost drunk-looking walk. A girl sees him and her expression becomes full of fear as she runs away. His face is not visible from the back.
A male student crouching on the floor looks up and sees the scary student standing over him and is instantly paralysed with fear.
“No, no, please!”
The scary students hand grabs the male student by the collar and begins to pull him.
Over the next few days, rumours of a boogieman began to spread throughout the city.
