Current day
I don't know if apprehending Kaori is enough to find a lead to Bonten, especially since I almost attacked that girl. But her involvement with them isn't the only one we're targeting at. The fact she also commits multiple crimes is reasonable enough for her to be detained.
I'm glad these missions were now a success, compared to the last one. It still traumatized me until now.
Maybe I'm glad that I didn't do it.
Yet.
I don't know why but I'll never forget the random voice I heard nowhere even before I was to sleep completely. It happened a very long time ago, but my instincts told me that it is somewhat important that's why until now, I still remember it.
After I came back to the station, Yamada-san assigned Sai to another troop for some reason, making me the only one under him. However, I got a new squad now. It wasn't like the first one but for some reason, it kind of reminds me of them.
It's been a week since Kaori was already imprisoned and I'm currently still working on something on my computer when one of my colleagues knocked and enters my office.
"May I come in?" Aino said. I nod without looking up from my screen to know who it is. "Congratulations," he added.
"For what?" my face frowned, continuously typing onto the keyboard.
"Making this mission a success. What else?" he leaned his back to the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You're supposed to be the one who done this stupid flirting, drinking, and making out thing, but it instead was appointed at me," I grumbled.
"Well, sorry bout that. We can't risk the thing that she might have already seen my face, and no one wants to accept this role. So, in the end, you're the only option, plus you have an intimidating face."
"Tell them the next time they refuse this kind of role, they'll automatically receive punishments." I threatened. I despise uncooperative officers. This is real work, not a school project that you can rely on others' work.
"Ok, chill. You're such a hot-headed person, Jun," he replied.
"We've been planning this for almost two months now. I've already learned my lesson," I stopped typing and turned my gaze to him. "And... thanks to you, we were able to find her location,"
He just smirked proudly.
"How did you do it again?" I asked, I wasn't listening to what he was explaining when he mentioned that he did something that would help us to deal with our problem.
He left his position to come closer and seat on one of the chairs in front of my office table.
"I was in an expensive casino," he replied, and I intervened with him before he even continues his story. "You're gambling?"
"What? No." his face furrowed. "I was in undercover, and I saw her lingering in that casino. I was about to get closer to her but then I saw her talking to a group of men with an expensive tuxedo."
"Then after that, I was stunned when she, together with those men, enters a VIP room," he continued. "Of course, because she's on our wanted list, I waited for them to come out to the VIP room. But, she's the only one who got out of the room first. So, I approached her as she walked towards my direction and I purposely bumped her body so hard that I fell on top of her into the floor."
"Wait wait, you bumped her and-" Aino stopped me from commenting by continuing to speak.
"Don't interrupt me, we're getting to the exciting part."
I didn't reply afterward. He sits up straight to continue his story clearly.
"So, I did say I fell on top of her, right? That was the time I was able to insert a tracking device into her bag that she didn't even notice. Amazing right?"
"Yeah..."
"Then I immediately apologized and help her stand up. I even helped her remove a few dusts from her clothes, to which I also placed a tracker into the pocket of her blazers laying on her shoulders as a cover."
"Of course, she became mad at me for not watching where I was going, but it's worth it. After that, I already left the place and reported it to Yamada-san. And that's where we started to come up with a plan to get her."
"But to be honest, it's still hard to track her down because she roams around the city," I replied.
"But we still managed to catch her at the club, alone. Good thing she didn't notice the device inside her bag. The bag she chose to bring with her to the club is the one I inserted the tracking device when I bumped into her." he continued.
"We're just lucky she chose that bag, she probably has a lot of it in Bonten," I responded.
"Speaking of bag, we saw a pill in there and a huge amount of cash," he reported.
"Did you get any other fingerprints?" I asked, and he just shook his head. "Her fingerprints are the only ones in there, no sign of any other fingerprints,"
I clicked my tongue.
"They must have been carefully using gloves to avoid any evidence," he added.
Bastards.
I leaned to the back of my chair and massage my temple with one hand. This nonstop throbbing in my head is been there since last week. I covered my mouth as I yawned, little tears are coming out of my eyes
"By the way, what name did you name yourself when you're in an undercover?" he asked.
"Mako." My hand is still in my temple when I answered his question.
"Mako? Why? You could have chosen 'Aino', it's more pleasing to the ears." he confidently teased.
"That name was the first thing that came into my mind. And if you want the person who confronted Kaori to be named 'Aino', then you should be the one who did what I did so it won't hurt your ego." I scolded.
This little thing people told you what you should have done instead is so irritating. Why don't they do it so they wouldn't tell me what to do? It's so fucking annoying.
"Hey chill, you're becoming a hot-headed person again," he replied softly. I don't know if he's saying this in a worried or sarcastic manner. But whatever is it, it's still annoying.
"Whatever," I signed. I removed my hand from my temple and just stared blankly at the ceiling.
"Have you already seen the footage?" he asked to which I just lazily reply "Of what?"
"The exploded incident. Those are very destructive, but there's a CCTV camera that survived from it that managed to capture the explosion scenes," with this news from him, my attention has been caught as my gaze are into him again while listening. "Though it's kind of blurry, and the lenses were destroyed at the end. But at least it was recorded, we're already investigating it, and we can still consider it as a backup."
"Did you witness their faces?" I asked, but he only shook his head.
"Like I said, camera was already blurry. But there's this one thing that was captured through the camera, I don't know if it's a person or not, but it is purplish." he explained with gestures.
"What, like a floating jellyfish?" I asked, but he shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever that is, it's not enough." Out of my awareness, I didn't notice my hand was on my hair again, pulling a few strands of it until it was removed from my scalp. I hate this unaware action of mine, but at the same time, it was kind of a relief.
"Yeah... I agree," he mumbled.
There's a little silence.
"It's so odd that the others died from the explosions, but Tachibana... he died from being shot in the head," he added.
There's something wrong with it. I'm already overthinking the possible occurrences of the incidents, but I don't want to conclude immediately.
"There's no other choice but we need to confront Kaori again," I announced to him.
"She doesn't have any information to spill. She doesn't want to talk anymore, what forces are you going to do to make her spill it all out?" he worried.
If only she was alone and no cameras around, I'll torture her until she spills everything.
"We need to try. I'll talk to her. I'm certain she's not telling everything, she's fighting off her hesitation." I replied.
"We're already running out of time. Bonten might do more damage if we didn't make any move, do you want me to accompany you to Yamada-san?"
"No need, I can do it myself," I replied immediately so he won't resist my decision. Good thing he just nods.
I yawn. I gently shut my eyes as I propped my elbow on the table and lean my temple to my hand. "I'm tired" I murmured.
"Finally you said it!" he replied in joy. My eyebrows suddenly furrowed in his reaction. Is that supposed to be proud of?
"What do you mean?" I was annoyed and confused to by his reaction.
"Yamada-san instructed me to tell you to go home for a bit then come back tomorrow again. That's the reason why I came here in the first place."
"Tell him I'm fine. I'm tired but I can still work functionally," I began typing my hands again to my laptop, but then Aino suddenly pushed the screen of my laptop to close it. Fortunately, I managed to remove my hands even before it was even close. "Hey," I grunted.
"No, you're not. I'm sorry to say this, but after they died," he emphasizes while motioning his hands with a punctuation point to the word 'died'. "You're like punishing yourself by overworking."
"Look at your dark eye bags. You haven't got home for straight 3 days. You're torturing yourself, it's not healthy anymore." he added, my eyes just bore into him.
Do I look like I care?
His hands were still on top of my laptop to prevent me from opening it.
"I still take a short nap," I said, but he didn't consider it.
"Those still don't count. Real rest is when you're not thinking about work or anything else that should be done instead of resting."
He continued to order me on behalf of our boss, "Go home and get some sleep, work can wait."
After what he said, I began to wonder.
Maybe I should? I'm starting to get dizzy when I stand up immediately. I easily grew irritated. I experience headaches regularly. I lose interest in doing anything, yet I push myself to finish it.
"Fine." I signed, even if I refuse that advice, they'll still push me to do it.
"Good then, I'll be coming here later to check if you really went home, and if you don't, I'll tell Yamada-san," he said while walking towards the exit of the office.
"Dumbass! there's no need for that." I called out, but he had already gone out before hearing all of it.
Seconds later, I stood up from my chair and stretched my body. I noticed the strands of plucked hair on my table that I unconsciously removed from my head, I shove them away until they land on the floor. I packed out my things and tidy my table before exiting my office towards the parking area.
𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 :)