SUPERWORLD

Toshiro I

It doesn't make any damn sense, Toshiro thought to himself, staring at the board. Ten murders in the last forty-two days, Hiroshima has never been like this.

"Oi, Toshiro, I got us some coffee." His partner Ryuske Tamaguchi said, setting a paper cup with a plastic lid down on the table behind Toshiro.

"Thanks." Toshiro was on autopilot, the majority of his brain power dedicated to the puzzle in front of him.

Kidnappers don't usually break into homes and murder the family to get the kids, they wait for the children to be alone in public.

Ryusuke pulled up a chair and sat next to Toshiro.

"Had to push past Goro Kikuchi and the rest of the tabloid ghouls to get back in, they're crowded around the station." Ryusuke supplied, trying to make friendly conversation.

Toshiro ejected the useless information and continued thinking. Likely knowing where his partner's mind was, Ryusuke changed tact.

"Psychology report isn't back yet, but I don't need a doctor to tell me we're dealing with one sick animal." Ryusuke said, sipping idly at his coffee. This brought Toshiro into conversation.

"I do. This doesn't make any sense. A child murderer or rapist would snatch the kid up after school, they don't usually break in and kill the parents right there in the house." Toshiro countered.

"Maybe he's a double degenerate, he could get off on killing the family and child snatching." Ryusuke suggested. "Run it down from the top, maybe we'll realize something new."

Toshiro didn't need to be told twice, his mind was going a mile a minute, running the case forward and backward through his mind like a shoe shiner's cloth on a pair of boots.

Maybe getting it out of my mind will help. He thought, standing and flipping the note filled whiteboard in the office to the blank side before grabbing a marker.

"Six separate attacks, ten murders, eight missing kids." Toshiro began, Marking them on the whiteboard.

"The first one, the attack on the Origawa family, dates back to the seventh of last month. The most recent was nearly a week ago. All the attacks are spaced out evenly, when one happens, another is sure to follow in the next seven days." Toshiro continued, making additional notes on the white board.

"The killer doesn't seem to target based on age or class, they attack families indiscriminately. Each victim died of severe brain hemorrhaging, but the coroner hasn't been able to find the cause as there's no detectable trauma to the head. At each home, the children were taken, regardless of gender, none of the families have had a child over the age of twelve. No prints or hairs at the scene." Toshiro concluded. Ryusuke was slumped in his chair,the younger man had the same look of concentration as his older counterpart.

"All the murders seem to be localized to the Hiroshima Prefecture. Normally, we see this many murders spread out over five years. This bastard alone is making the media question our competency." Ryusuke said.

"I know, but there's nothing we can do about that, they barely survive off celebrity stories and political drama, once they smell blood, all bets are off." Toshiro agreed.

"Exactly. And that's why no one but us wants to touch this case. You hear that the chief put out an open offer for anyone to join our task force and no one joined?" Ryuske complained.

"You can't blame them, no prints, no solid relation between victims, it's a tough case." Toshiro said.

"Yeah, well, they shouldn't have become detectives if they didn't want to work tough cases. Go on home, I'll take over. You've been here since last night, your wife must be worried sick." Ryusuke stood up and handed Toshiro his coat. Toshiro looked at it for a moment, not wanting to take it, before giving in as he had no excuse not to.