Sukeban (Discontinued)

Chapter 40: Confusion

“You better have a good reason for being here so early,” Omar grumbled tiredly at his friend. Katashi gave a loud laugh, shaking his head before walking past Omar.

“Your old age is catching up to you, I’ve never seen you so tired at 7 am,” Katashi commented. He could hear Omar snort from behind him before the closing sound of a door followed. A small smile came to Katashi’s face as the two males made their way into Omar’s living room, both taking a seat on the couch.

“What is it that you came to tell me, Katashi?” Omar asked him. Katashi coughed lightly before bringing his bag closer to him. He began to dig through the small bag before pulling out one folder, following it with another. He sat both of them onto the couch cushion that separated Katashi and Omar.

“These are the files I collected on the girls. I worked through the night, knowing how important this was for you. I’m afraid I may not be giving you everything you had hoped for though.”

“At this point, anything you can offer me would be fine,” Omar confirmed. Katashi nodded, picking up the first folder he had pulled out. He flipped it open before thumbing through the contents, taking out a single paper when he found it.

“This is Haruna Ono’s basic information, it does include her address. She lives here in Tokyo and lives with her parents still. I found records of her in a local high school, the same one I found records of Suzuki in as well. I could not, however, find any reports of abuse coming from the address. Either your informant wasn’t very truthful or the abuse was never reported before.”

“That will be enough for her; I’ll take it from here…”

“There is another thing,” Katashi interrupted quickly. He pulled out two more sets of papers, handing them to Omar. “Ono has quite the record at her school. I managed to crack the code and take a peek.” Omar glowered at his friend for his words.

“I didn’t tell you to do that.”

“I know, but I wanted to… And I’m glad I did. Omar, this girl is trouble. She has a massive record of violence and suspensions from her school. So much that the school is considering expulsion as a punishment for her, and I’m sure you know how serious that is in Japanese schools.”

“I know,” Omar said with a sigh. He shook his head; he could worry about Haruna’s record later. “What did you find on Rina?” Omar asked. Katashi sighed softly, flipping Haruna’s file closed and pulling the second one on top. He ran a hand through his hair as he opened it, pulling out a paper similar to the one he had just given Omar.

“Suzuki puzzles me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I had trouble tracking her whereabouts down, but not because of her last name. I found records of her and found who her parents are. Thing is, her parents don’t appear to be living in Tokyo. Their names are registered to an address in Osaka, says they moved there about three months ago. I have no idea where Suzuki is at in Tokyo right now… Or if she’s even still here. This girl, when you met her, did she seem close to Ono?”

“She was very close to Haruna,” Omar confirmed. “It doesn’t make sense that her parents would be all the way in Osaka…”

“There are a few ways this could happen,” Katashi interjected. “Suzuki could have been allowed by her parents to stay here for school. However, given her age, they would have had to put the apartment in their name or in a relatives’ name. There was nothing connected to her parents so it would need to be a relative. Suzuki is too much of a common last name though and Tokyo is a huge city, there is no way for me to know which residences under the Suzuki name could possibly be related to this one.”