The Shadow Chasers

Chapter 3

Mali-U Penthouse Dorm

The trio each had their small rolling suitcases with them poolside on their dorm rooftop outside patio. A high-tech, sleek grey jet flew into view and slowed to a hover. A vacuum tube extended from its underbelly, and the girls gripped their luggage before being sucked up a short distance into the tube and inside the jet. The tube retracted and the plane flew off, picking up altitude through the cloudy sky.

Tatsumi Port Island, Japan

After an incredibly short, uneventful trip, the high-speed jet arrived over their destination and dropped in altitude to its programmed coordinates. The girls had quickly exited the plane in an open area of a downtown park. The plane, on autopilot, lifted off to return to WOOHP. Alex had her X-Powder out, checking the location of their nearby hotel. The girls rolled their suitcases along a paved path through the picturesque park until they reached the city streets of the downtown area, and their hotel. After checking in, dropping off their things, and a brief rest stop, they were back out to catch a cab to the police station.

They soon arrived at the drop-off section of the curb before a modern, nondescript station. Alex paid the fare, and they exited the cab.

"Are we really going to find something the police missed in their own station?" Clover asked as they walked to the station's front doors.

"Well, we do have our WOOHP gadgets," Sam replied hopefully to the others.

Clover and Alex made small sounds of agreement.  "I'm just glad we're cooperating officially," Alex noted, "I would not want to break in here," she said firmly.

Clover and Sam gave nods of agreement, Sam held the door for her friends, and the trio entered the station. As they approached the front desk, a middle-aged man looked at the three young foreign women with mild surprise. Sam held out her WOOHP ID with a reassuring smile.

"Hi, we're here from WOOHP to assist Ms. Kirijo's investigation," she said.

The translator gadget seemed to have worked. The man looked over the badge, then nodded.

"Yes, she just got here. I'll have someone take you there," he said, catching the eye of a young wiry man and waving him over. "Evidence room. Thanks," the desk officer said curtly, then took an incoming call.

The younger man nodded, then gestured to the visitors to follow him.

"Please, this way," he announced, leading unusual visitors through the high-tech, relatively quiet main hub of the station.

The well-lit area was filled with sleek workstations with top-of-the line computers; a color theme of black, white and beige pervasive throughout. The officer walked into a lower ceiling, off-white hallway that connected from the main room with the others in tow. He stopped at a door, which he gestured to, and made eye contact with the girls.

"Thanks," Sam said to the young man, with a cordial smile. Alex and Clover did the same in turn.

He nodded in respect with a bashful smile of his own, gave a short wave, and walked off.

The girls entered, and saw a beige-painted room lit by fluorescent lights, filled with shelving units, boxes, filing cabinets, and a workstation with a computer. A handsome, intense-looking man in a grey suit, likely in his thirties, was chatting with a woman seemingly their own age with long dark-red hair that curled downward into a spiral. She wore a conservative black business suit. As they entered, they both turned to face them.

"Ah, you must be the WOOHP agents," the man said. "I'm Asahi from Public Security," he said.

"You, uh, understood my English?" he asked, unsure.

Clover nodded slightly in response. "Hi, good to meet you. I'm Clover," she replied. "No worries on speaking English. These are high-tech translators. We can understand each other if you speak Japanese," she confided, pointing to one of her small, stud earrings.

"Hm, impressive technology. I'm Mitsuru," the woman said, bowing slightly. "Thank you for coming all this way," she added.

Sam and Alex respectfully introduced themselves. Asahi tugged his tie nervously, surprised to find himself working with four attractive young women. Looking at the newcomers, though, he got the feeling that they were pros, maybe as tough as Mitsuru. He'd never forget when Mitsuru had saved his life due to a serious mistake on his part in this very same room.

"So- yeah, a theft here is a first," he started. "You've heard that video cameras have nothing. Well, except for a slight glitch last night around 8:30," Asahi said, crossing his arms in thought. "They may have been tampered with... I've talked with everyone in the station, and everyone checks out for the time of the robbery. And forensics- is just down the hall. They came here and got nothing," Asahi finished with an exhale and a frown.

"It's quite perplexing. Oh, you don't even know what was stolen yet," Mitsuru confided. "A ring, a small mirror, and a dagger. These relics contain a power that could be catastrophic in the wrong hands. This is no random theft, for sure," she said tersely.

"Could be some cloaking technology that makes someone invisible," Alex mused.

Asahi and Mitsuru looked at her with mild surprise.

"Really?" Mitsuru wondered.

"We've seen a lot of crazy stuff over the years. Shape shifting, clones, you name it," Clover said.

"That kind of tech is a possibility. WOOHP has an invisibility gadget," Sam said, with a nod.

"But we have our own high tech gear for this investigation," she added, and pulled off her backpack and opened it. 

Clover and Alex did the same, and all three soon had their M-Ray Contacts out of their cases and covering their eyes. The girls then hit a button on the X-Powders which transformed them from wearing their casual wear, to brightly colored catsuits in a shimmer of energy.

Clover in red, Sam in green, and Alex in gold.

Asahi and Mitsuru stared mutely, shared a look, then turned back to the girls dumbfounded.

"That's... quite a trick," Asahi muttered.

"The contacts let us see through solid objects and traces of stuff that's usually not visible," Alex confided with Asahi and Mitsuru, as she and her teammates spread out to search for clues. She stopped after a moment, and turned back to Asahi and Mitsuru. "Oh, and these are our mission outfits. Cool, huh?" she added with a proud smile.

Mitsuru managed a nod, and Asahi quickly assented as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Alex was looking through the storage rack boxes (without needing to open them) for anything unusual.

She also didn't need to shift boxes to see in small gaps between them where a clue may be hidden.

Sam searched the computer desk, then removed her contacts to focus on the computer screen itself.

Clover opted for a slow sweep of the room, along the walls, looking from floor to ceiling for anything out of place.

Asahi joined Sam at the computer, and clicked on the folder marked Evidence List. "As you can see, everything in here is cataloged. We checked this earlier, and found it was accessed at 8:34 PM last night, which gives us a time- right after that camera glitch," he said. Sam looked at him in consideration for a moment.

"The thief didn't bother to try and cover his tracks since it'd be discovered he deleted his history," she surmised. "No keyboard prints, right? You mentioned forensics didn't find anything," she muttered.

Asahi nodded mutely in response, hand to the stubble-covered chin in thought.

Mitsuru looked through the three boxes that were stolen from with Alex, looking for any clues.

"Got something!" Clover called out suddenly, causing Mitsuru to glance up in surprise.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading.  Please vote and comment to show your support!