Although Emiko was ready for the continuation of her wandering, she wasn't able to return to it right away. The next day, after finding out about her brother's true motive and everything that had happened so far, she decided to continue her journey. At first, however, she asked Dr. Gillen not to tell Kenzo that she had come here especially for him. She knew that he would start to worry about her a lot right away, and this isn't the time for that, as he needs to focus on more important things now - for looking for the truth.
She thanked Mr. Rudy for the conversation, bowed like in Japanese, and was about to leave, but Dr. Gillen stopped her at the last moment.
The man felt partially responsible for the young woman, as he didn't want to expose his friend's younger sister to danger, so he proposed to stay with him for the next high-profile case with Tenma. Since Kenzo is gone again without a trace and his sister already knows everything, she doesn't need to risk unnecessarily. Emiko didn't want to agree with it and tried to reject this proposal, but she couldn't find a strong enough argument. Dr. Gillen was adamant.
Ultimately, the girl stayed.
In order not to waste time unnecessarily, young Tenma took a part-time job as a waitress at a local bar, she browsed the morning newspaper every day and... started some secret activity.
Dr. Gillen spent most of the day at work, which meant he came home in the late afternoon, which gave Emiko a wide range of possibilities and she decided to take full advantage of it. Rudy Gillen never found out that in the afternoons while he was still working... Emiko was training at the shooting range.
It wasn't her first encounter with a firearm. Already in Japan, when she turned sixteen, her father taught her the basics of what and how to use it. He was of the opinion that Emiko should be able to defend herself regardless of the situation that would happen to her in her life, although at the same time he hoped that she would never have to use this knowledge. But if he had known then that in the future she would want to use it for what she planned to do now... he probably would never have shown it to her.
****
The next few months passed, and finally one October morning news came of another murder of a middle-aged couple, this time in Hamburg. As soon as Emiko read about it in the morning newspaper, she quit her job immediately, left a note for Rudy Gillen, and continued her further journey.
When Dr. Gillen came home from work that day, he didn't find the girl at his house as he always did, which made him a bit unsettled. During these few months he had managed to like her not only because she was his friend's sister, but also because she was a reasonable and kind person.
The man checked all the rooms in the house, then finally entered his office.
'Where she is? She should be home by now...'
His eyes fell on the envelope on the desk. He quickly walked over to it and looked inside, where he saw a large sum of money and a folded piece of paper with a message.
Dear Mr. Rudy,
Thank you for everything you have done for me over the last few months, I am very grateful to you for all the help I have received. Today I found out about another case related to my brother, so I immediately go there. Please accept this money in exchange for my stay at your house. Again, thank you very much.
Emiko
PS. Dinner is in the fridge, just warm it up.
"Damn!" Dr. Gillen crumpled the note in his hand. "She didn't have to leave me any money!"
Emiko, however, came to Germany at her own risk, and therefore didn't want to owe anything to anyone.
****
Since it was mentioned in the newspaper that the suspect was again a former Japanese neurosurgeon, it was possible that she would meet Kenzo again. The girl, on the way from Welheim to Hamburg, was aware of this all the time and was glad that her brother remembered her only as a small child. He couldn't find out now that she was in Germany at any cost... not now... Not when she wanted to do this one thing...
When she arrived in Hamburg, she searched all possible sources of information until she finally found the home of the murdered couple. It was a fairly large house, accessed by a path leading through the garden, where the plants were now in the colors of an autumn - it was October.
Emiko slowly started looking into individual rooms, until finally she found herself in the living room where she found the crime scene. There were traces of blood on the carpet and on the floor, along with signed numbers made by police technicians, also, a white outline of one of the murdered. The girl was extremely pleased with the fact that there was no living soul in the house and outside of it, so she could stay in it unnoticed. From the first number she moved slowly, trying to figure out the killer's motive.
'Although that someone received the first injury at the chair, he kept on moving forward... What mean that the perpetrator... missed?' The girl traced the path of blood that led to the chest of drawers standing by the wall. 'He missed, so he started following the victim...' She started walking slowly in that direction. 'Yeeah... He followed him until now, because on the wall you can see the imprint of the bloody hand, which the victim rested in an act of probably final panic...' She looked to the side, where a few meters away was the outline of a human body drew in white chalk. 'But if he ended his life there, it means that the final blow didn't take place here... Why?' Emiko stood still and staring at the whole scene visible out in front of her, she bit her thumb resting on her lower lip. 'But the killer had the perfect opportunity to end this while they were at the dresser... with the mirror...?!' She turned that way and froze.
Emotions.
It was the first thing she thought about. In order for a murderer to kill his victim, he needed a forceful stab with a knife - but before he did it, he saw his face in the mirror...
'...and that's why he didn't do it here...' Emiko touched the cold surface of the glass reflecting the whole surrounding world. 'He couldn't kill another human, while seeing himself as a murderer...'
She then remembered previous crime scenes that she had visited during her travels all over Germany over the past two years.
'All the previous ones were cold... There was absolutely nothing there, except pure death... And here...' The girl turned about one hundred and eighty degrees and rested her back on the dresser. 'Here's something completely different... The newspapers reported that this case is related to the other murders of middle-aged couples, but I had the impression that the information in them falsified the reality. Although I'm neither a policewoman nor a detective, even I feel that this and that killer are two different people...' She looked towards the kitchen, where the outline of another body was on the floor. 'But if the newspapers wrote the article this way, it means that they either wanted to make money from it in some way... or were asked to do so by the police. Well... my brother is still wanted, so it looks like the latter option and someone has set a trap for him... I just hope he can get out of it alive.'
Emiko took a deep breath, then began to head towards the exit. She had spent enough time here, there was no need to risk any further until someone found her in a house she shouldn't be in. Carefully and quietly, she left the building and headed towards the city to learn more.
However, fate made her wait a little longer for it this time, much longer than she had previously expected.
****
It was the impulse of the moment. Emiko was very frustrated by the constant lack of information from publicly available sources over the past month and the fact that she had not been able to meet her brother, so she decided to expand her search to other places during the next two months. She knew she was risking a lot, but the desire to find out the truth and help Kenzo far outweighed the scales.
She started walking around places where you could meet criminals, corrupt businessmen and the whole great underground world... Although she tried to be careful and had been able to fight since childhood, she realized that as a girl she would have little chance if several men attacked her at once. She also realized that the information she needed would not be found in normal, people-friendly places. It wasn't it anymore - it wasn't an innocent search for information and playing detective. Now she needed to find some clues... that would lead her to a certain young man...
Emiko didn't even know what he looked like. All she had learned from Dr. Gillen was that he had a twin sister and dragged her brother into all this ridiculous game. If you could even call it a game of chasing a psychopathic killer... But then again, since that was what he was using her brother for instead of killing him, he must have been enjoying it somehow.
There was also another issue - the girl knew that she could only get a gun on the illegal market. She had to arm herself with it not only because she decided, depending on the events, to stop or sacrifice herself for her brother, but also to defend herself if one day it turned out that she was in a situation too dangerous for her life.
That night, she finally found a suitable dealer and struck a deal with him. She got a Walther pistol and a lot of spare bullets for its clip, at a price that wasn't nearly as high as that of several previous dealers. Since she knew something about weapons thanks to her father's lessons, she was able to tell that the merchandise wasn't of poor quality and would certainly do its job when the time came.
When the dealer walked away from the table where he was sitting with her, Emiko put the pistol behind her coat, then the box with spare bullets in her coat pocket and rested her elbows on the table. She wondered if she should stay here or be back the next evening. There were a lot of customers in the place, and the places at the bar were crowded and all kinds of conversations were heard from everywhere. The girl discreetly looked around in all directions and, despite all her common sense, decided to stay for a while, because there might have been some interesting exchange of information that she might have accidentally heard... The very thought made her smile slightly under her breath.
After a while, however, she noticed something disturbing. Two men were approaching her table, not quite sober. After all, Emiko remained firmly in place, not to show any reflexes of fear - because that would have completely lost her chances to escape.
"Fhat a beutiful woman... and all allone..." One of the men spoke, leaning on the table with one hand and leaning over her seated figure at the same time. The other, on the other hand, without any invitation, sat down in the chair next to her and began to look at her.
"Bruno, you're an idiot! Is she still sitting alone?!" The man mockingly looked at his companion who quickly turned his head towards him.
"You're the largest fool, you are, Horst! She won't just sit with you!" He grabbed the chair casually and quickly sat down on the other side of her. "You'll entertain us somehow, won't you, candy-gurl?" At this ambiguous suggestion, Emiko's eyes assumed a strange expression. As if nothing had happened, she rested her chin on the hands still resting on the table and tilted her head slightly, smiling slightly.
"Oh... You're funny themselves. Does anyone else need to increase it?" The men burst out laughing at that statement.
"I never get enough of fun, especially... if it's spent in such good company..." The man who had been named Horst before, placed one of his hands on her knee under the table.
At that moment, Emiko wanted to hit him. Yes, like once and completely DEADLY. However, she decided to do something else... even more crazier.
"Sweetheart... do you know that by touching me in any way, you are risking your life?" Emiko turned her head towards him with a sweet smile on her lips and looked straight into his eyes. "Now that this situation happened, I understand, that you knew about it from the very beginning...?" The man started to look at her strangely - it was obvious that the lack of any emotion and the slight hint of amusement in her voice made him confused, even despite his current drunk state.
"Do you like to play games, by any chance, my beautiful?" He slowly started to bend forward her, at which Emiko smiled even wider and took the weapon out of her coat, pointing it straight at his stomach under the table.
"I reaaally like games. And the most, where I can see in what pains my next victim dies, darling~ ...And don't move, you two!" She added at the end when she noticed that the man sitting on the other side of her was trying to attack her from behind. "Try to make any sudden move and I'll shoot not only your friend, Мой ты забавный друг. (,my funny friend.)"
Her eyes weren't joking, and you could see that both men realized it, because it was almost as if they suddenly sobered up; even if they didn't understand the last sentence to the end. In a way, thanks to the fact that there were a lot of people in the place, no one paid attention to them, because there was a lot of noise.
"So? Maybe we'll sit on the opposite side of the table and then we'll talk politely, my dear friends?" Emiko got up, shifting the table to the other side, and then she calmly passed and sat down in front of them, hiding her gun again behind her red coat. She propped her elbows on the table, intertwined fingers of her hands together, and with a slight smirk began to stare at the men sitting in front of her.
"I like such a fiery, sexy character..." Horst said, secretly wiping the drips of sweat from his forehead, then crossed his legs. "Fuck out Bruno, I want to spend some time alone with this lady."
"Are you fucked up?! We came here together so I'm not leaving you alone with this whore!"
"Shut your mouth!" Horst took a large sum of money from his pants pocket. "Go to the back, or maybe that fucking dealer of yours is finally here. If you leave me with her, I'll let you spend all that money on whatever you want." The man grabbed the cash and began counting it.
"Too little. If you give me twice of this. Your stuff is VERY expensive..." Horst slammed his fist on the table.
"Fuck, true!" He took out more money, then threw it at the other man. "Now get lost!" The man picked up the scattered banknotes, then cursed again and left.
"Not a very subtle way to get a cash." Emiko smiled at him ironically.
"Because he's a junkie and a moron... Completely different than you, my beautiful stranger. I'll spend much more on you..." The girl rested her chin on her hands again.
"Oh...? I see that I've got a real rich gentleman... So can this rich man order us a bottle of something stronger and two glasses?"
"Of course. I suppose that when you're drunk, you can be much more passionate than a moment ago?" Emiko closed her eyes partially, smiling teasingly.
"Oooh yeees... much more~"
The man got up and went to the bar, where he ordered a whole bottle of vodka, then went back to the table and poured them their first round. They both grabbed the glasses and simultaneously tilted their heads upward - Horst drank his portion at once, while Emiko only took a small sip. She had a sly plan in her head...
"Not at once, baby? Or maybe you want to get me drunk, huh?" He asked her, setting his glass down on the table.
"Oh... I just like to savoring. If I drank it all at once, I wouldn't feel anything, right?"
"Hm... you say you like to feel? Interesting... Do you like it when it hurts a little?" Emiko put the glass to her lips again and drank a little.
"Depends on what you would like to offer me, my dear. Maybe I could give you more pain?" Thinking about the gun, the girl finished her glass, then poured another portion of alcohol into both glasses. The man grabbed his portion and drank again at once, and Emiko... She spill it unnoticed behind herself.
'I wonder how long he can endure...' She thought, surreptitiously watching him. 'I'll talk to him and joke about these distasteful topics, and when he starts swaying and leaning on the table, the green light will turn on for me and I'm out of here...'
****
This was how this "interesting" conversation lasted on and, to Emiko's surprise, the man had a rather strong head. She, however, didn't give up and once sipping a little and then getting rid of the contents of more and more glasses in different ways, she emptied the bottle systematically to the end.
"Aaaaand you know babe, I'm soooo damn ricch that I could eeeeevery night make luve with yoooou in money..."
"Huhu~ So how did such a man like you, make such a fortune?"
"HIC! You knooow... I would never tell you about tzis story from fivve years ago... HIC!"
"But of course, because it certainly is a big mystery, right?"
"Eeexaaactly~ You knooow, I can't teeell you that a something like a bannnk was created back then, which man-naged underground funds... and tzat it was sponsored by the Germany theeemselves... Darling, we're rrraundering money there, tsanks to which a lot of us earhhned a huge forhtune..." The man grabbed a glass and again emptied it to the bottom. "That's whyyy I'm not telling you anyyything... HIK! Not even about that young bastard who was in control of thiz whole crap and suddenly dissappeared one day. I'm teeelling youuu there was a toootal chaos. We started fighting like dogs for the money that stayed there... Fuuck, you know what shit was going on there?!"
"He was some very bad man, wasn't he? Deceive his partners this way..."
"HIC! Fuck, exaaactly. Young... HIC! Little shit! As if he wanted to see how adzult people behave with so much money at their dispooosal. He played with usss like some little brattt stizking a stick into an anthill...!" The man hit the table with his fist and the girl started staring at him with interest. She didn't understand why, but the aura of such a heartless young businessman reminded her inexplicably of a certain young and soulless murderer whom her brother had strangely pursued...
"Little brat? How old was he?" She leaned slightly towards the man.
"Whaaat, HIC! You're interesthed in this dick?" Emiko innocently smiled from over a glass.
"Are you kidding me, sir? I have more interesting company here..." Horst started to laugh stupidly.
"Isn't that fuuucking obviousss? Sweetheeeart... I thziiink he's a student riighht nowww..." It was obvious that the alcohol was getting over him more and more. "Whyyy areeen'th you dhruuunk? Driiink withz meee oneee mooore tiiime, and oneeeee..."
"I have Russian roots, weakling baby~" Emiko playfully replied to him, pouring another round and praying that the alcohol would finally get over him completely, because at any moment the bottle could become empty; and the girl was afraid of what might come after that.
"It's better HIC! Don't leeet greed ovherwhelm you liiike meee..." He drained another glass to the bottom. "Because if you managed to got..." The man began to sway slightly in his seat. "To Muuunichhh... I wouldn't... beee... aaable toooo... fuuuzk youuuuu..." After that, his face fell heavily on the top of the table, making the glass that he had been holding in his hand a moment earlier, fell to the floor and it shattered into small pieces.
Emiko with a certain movement got up from her seat, smiled heartily at the now snoring man and gently slid the chair behind table.
"Thank you very much for all the information, sir." She said quite smugly, then left the bar and headed straight to her motel, where she took a cold shower to ward off the slight drunkenness she started to feel after drinking those several full glasses of clear vodka.
It was also the first and the only time in her life that she had ever drunk any alcohol. After what she learned from the man, she knew where she needed to go on a further journey...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. notes:
In this chapter Emiko activated her second face - sweet but psycho~
Arc in Munich is coming!