Case Closed Fan Fiction / Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ The Dark Lady ❯ Chapter 3

02 - The Return of the Innocent

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

It was two hours before sunset, and the streets of Tokyo were almost empty. Passing cars each filled with salary men on their way home from their offices drifted slowly in the highway, the sun reflecting on the chrome finishes of their cars. They had no clue that about a few kilometers from the speed-way, in a rather ragged looking warehouse, a police raid was about to take place.

 

The SWAT team had been moving slowly, each of them keeping zero radio contact, only using hand signals to communicate with each other. Taking tentative steps as they swarmed the surroundings of that warehouse, they paused each time their lead, looking on as a scout, would signal them to.

 

The air wasn't disturbed. The SWAT finally arrived on their target building, and the leaders of each unit called upon another member, who without any vocal orders, came forward, and inserted a tube on the openings of the building. One was under a door, others on the broken windows, and some even on holes on the walls.

 

The men operating the tubes would look at the viewfinder, and would check the interior area of the building, and soon, raised a hand. About a few kilometers away, in an elevated area, a group of civilian dressed officers with binoculars looking at specific SWAT units, with Heiji sitting in the middle, his eyes closed, contemplating on something.

 

“Team One has the green signal,” one of the officers around Heiji called.

 

“Team Two is go.”

 

“Team Three is go.”

 

“Team Four as well.”

 

“Team Five is on stand… no, wait… they are giving the signal. All teams are go.”

 

Heiji's eyes opened. “Break radio silence. Deploy the signal. Initiate the operation.”

 

Back at the warehouse, the leaders of the SWAT units received the go signal, and without pause, entered the warehouse, guns drawn, safety off. Like a well-oiled machine, the SWAT units came from all directions, pouring in the warehouse like ants attacking their prey, swarming and aiming their guns towards the very surprised men inside to surrender.

 

Before long, the whole building was under control.

 

“Team One, clear.”

 

“Team Two, clear.”

 

“Team Three, clear.”

 

“Team Four, clear.”

 

“Team Five, clear. Target acquired.”

 

Heiji heard the transmissions, and nodded. “Give the order.”

 

The SWAT team leaders received their authorization command, and called another of their members, who came with crowbars. They then proceeded towards stacked boxes that were neatly placed inside the center of the area. Without any time wasted, the SWAT members proceeded to forcibly open those boxes.

 

A few kilometers away, Heiji held his breath, his hand on his ear, listening to the radio conversation. This was it… finally, the moment of truth. A week's worth of intensive investigation, many sleepless nights, success with this operation will finally mean a solid foundation in fighting organized crime.

 

“This is team leader One…” there was a pause. “Package is clean. Nothing here.”

 

“Goddamnit!” Heiji's hand threw down the receiver he had been holding just a few seconds ago.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

“That was the second time… its no coincidence,” Heiji muttered silently towards the Chief.

 

It had been a few hours after the operation, which was supposed to open doors in getting through the Yakuza. First off was trying to stop the drug trafficking, which was one of the Yakuza's up-and-up business which they don't take too seriously. They profited more on gun-smuggling, prostitution rings and bank schemes, but for Heiji, cornering out their weaker business first before tackling the larger ones would be a good step slowly rooting the organized crime out of their money.

 

Unfortunately, he had attempted twice in confiscating a rather large quantity of drug supplies which his very close (and outside sources) have pointed out, only to find out the drugs were conveniently absent.

 

“We have a leak,” Heiji stated in a non-accusing manner. “Ayumi-chan said it… maybe I should have listened to her.”

 

“You can still redo your team,” the Chief suggested.

 

“And lose face? No,” Heiji shook his head. Maybe announcing his team's name in front of the media with promises that this was the best team he could have formed was not such a bright idea. “I have to catch any of them in the act. That way, I have a legitimate way to take them off the team… but…”

 

Chief nodded. He knew the problem Heiji was facing. The man was pretty smart, but he couldn't afford investigating his suspected guilty party of his team and not ostracize the others. They would want to know why they would be investigated, by their leader who had just hand-picked them no less. It would be a low blow to their morale.

 

Not only that, Heiji was also having his hands full trying to get something out of the Yakuza, who had been pretty well-prepared for almost any police actions against them. It was going to take some more planning to get things moving again.

 

“Sorry for ranting,” Heiji sighed. “It's just… I'm empty. No ideas, nothing.”

 

“You can ask Kudo for advice.”

 

“No,” Heiji shook his head. “She won't let me live it down, and I'm not in particular mood to see her gloat about it.” He then laughed nervously, realizing something. “I'm being silly right now, aren't I?”

 

“Yes…” the Chief chuckled somewhat. “How long do you think you can gain more ground?”

 

“Probably another week… maybe even longer,” Heiji replied. “My informants are getting a bit pissed that I'm apparently messing things up, hahaha…” He paused. “They are probably going to be angry at me again.”

 

“Well, considering how the Yakuza will respond, getting new info will really do take a while,” the Chief stood up and patted Heiji's back gently. “You can take the time and try and figure out how you can finally get them on your next try.”

 

Heiji sighed. Knowing there's a leak is a good start, but knowing where the leak permeates from is another issue entirely. How much info can he give away on his operations without sacrificing effectiveness? Too little and there is a good chance everything ends in failure. Too much, it'll be a repeat of the last two operations. Where is the middle ground?

 

The phone ringing brought Heiji out of his reverie. The Chief of police moved there immidietly, answering the phone. Heiji stood up, and got ready to leave as the call could be important, and he didn't want to stay around and invade the Chief's privacy, but when the man motioned him to sit down, Heiji shot him a look of inquiry, before he took his seat once again.

 

“Kudo, Heiji's here…” the Chief stated towards the phone, making the other man look up slightly. “Alright…”

 

The Chief pushed a button on his phone, turning on the loud-speakers, and putting the handset back to its cradle.

 

“Hey, Heiji.”

 

Kudo's voice rang clear, though in the background, there was a slight tapping sound permeating between her words. Heiji realized she was typing.

 

“Hey, Kudo,” Heiji greeted back. “What's up? Here to make fun of me, aren'tcha?”

 

“Make fun? Why?”

 

“My operation failed,” Heiji stated nonchalantly, though deep inside, he was wondering what kind of sharp jab Kudo was going to pull on him.

 

“Oh that… try harder next time.”

 

“Ugh… damnit Ayumi-chan! That was low! You knew I was expecting some sort of jab, and you just turn around and completely ignore my failings-!”

 

“Oh, cut the crap, Heiji. We got bigger fish to fry.”

 

The Chief and Heiji looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

 

“What's going on?”

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

“There was a flight earlier, which had come from the Philippines…”

 

A young woman stood there solidly, giving out a few papers in the immigration's window, which were thoroughly looked.

 

“Business or pleasure?” the man asked in a rather solid English.

 

“Pleasure,” the woman stated in plain Japanese, surprising the man.

 

“How long will you stay here in Japan?” he asked, now in Japanese.

 

“As long as it takes…” the woman stated, and then, gave another document with some weird symbols on its face.

 

“She spoke perfect Japanese, and she had a foreign passport, but the odd thing was that the government took her in without question…”

 

“Why?”

 

“On her person, she had a letter from the Royal Family of Molmol.”

 

“Welcome to Tokyo, Maehara-san.”

 

Maehara Shinobu smiled pleasantly as the man gave her back her passport and documents.

 

“Thank you very much.”

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

“She's Maehara Shinobu, age nineteen… one of hisformer acquaintances.”

 

“The Joker's… right?” Heiji asked, his hand going for his chin. “If I remember correctly, you had suspected her as one of his helpers, right?”

 

“She had a rather huge crush on him when they were together… before his apparent `death'. She was also one of the few that didn't mistreat him.”

 

“Are you worried she may become a target like the other three?” Heiji asked, thinking about the three victims of the Joker: Narusegawa, Aoyama, and Konno.

 

“I have no idea. She can be… or maybe she'll just be ignored. However, be that as it may, she maystill need protection.”

 

“Any suggestions?” the Chief asked.

 

“I was wondering if any fine officer would like to shadow over her.”

 

“I'll go,” Heiji offered.

 

“Don't you have better things to do?”

 

“Actually, my unit has nothing to do for a good while, except for emergency situations… Besides… I can just get two and three guys with me to look out for the lady,” Heiji stated. “Is she still in the Airport?”

 

“No, actually, I just received word just a few moments ago. The flight had arrived an hour before. Even if you leave now she'd have been gone by then.”

 

“Any suggestions?” Heiji asked.

 

“You're a detective, Heiji.Deal with it.”

 

The man just grinned. “You could have just said `I don't have anymore information', Ayumi-chan.”

 

The Chief chuckled as there was a rather short snort of anger, and a barely audible mumble before the phone line went dead. Heiji looked rather happy at the outcome, and for one brief moment, went with a rather juvenile thought of putting a scoreboard.

 

Heiji: 1

 

Kudo: 0

 

However, he did not dwell on it, and was on the move again. Grabbing one of his jackets, he exited the room pointing on three officers, who were on alert as he called them.

 

“Yosubei, Miyamoto, Kensuke, with me,” Heiji ordered. “The rest of you, go online. Connect with any contact on the outside, as many as you can.”

 

“Where are we going, sir?” Yosubei asked, trailing now behind Heiji.

 

“We're on guard duty. Kensuke, you drive. Miyamoto, Yosubei, you keep contact with everyone here, who will try and gather as much information as you can. Our target is a young woman, nineteen years of age. The name is Maehara Shinobu.”

 

Everyone on their desks began typing.

 

“She just arrived from a flight in the Philippines more than an hour ago. She has a Molmol passport, but she is very much a Japanese citizen. She had disappeared three years ago, and if any of you have done your homework, she was one of the Joker's acquaintances. We believe she may be targeted next.”

 

“But sir… do you think he would-”

 

“We take no chances,” Heiji cut Miyamoto off. “I want everything starting from the airport. What transport did she get? Where did she go? Any close family relatives in the Tokyo area? Is there any recent photos of her? I want everything done now. Not later. Now.”

 

“Yes sir!” the unit at the desk stated solidly, and went back to work, some on the computers, some on the telephones.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

Intelligence gathering isn't really difficult as long as you have resources to help you along the way. Problem was, when you try and gather within the system, the tendency is getting a lot of noise. And boy, was there a lot.

 

While the details are already there, the information that Heiji got back from base would be no help. He had no need for a flight number, ticket number, or how much luggage she had carried out. Plus, because of the Joker's attack on the government's system two years ago, erasing more than half of the Japanese registry, finding out Maehara Shinobu's family was like finding a needle in a haystack.

 

There were two-hundred and fifty-six Maehara's living in Tokyo and the outskirts. One-hundred twenty-five of them were married. None of them had a daughter named Shinobu. Considering she might not have been in Japan when the incidents happened, the reason why she had no record was because she wasn't re-registered.

 

Makes sense for a Royalty of Molmol would send a letter… especially since if Kudo's report was correct, she was friends with the Royal Princess… Heiji thought. He impatiently tapped the foot on the car they were riding.

 

“Anything yet?” he asked towards the two officers he assigned on keeping contact with HQ.

 

“Nothing yet sir!”

 

“Damn…”

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

“Arigatou,” the beautiful young woman stated as she paid the taxi driver, ignoring the smitten look on his face. Taking the only thing she had carried over from Molmol, Shinobu looked around for a moment, and blushing somewhat when she felt people's eyes around her.

 

She knew why they stared. She had felt the same stares in Molmol before, when her friend, Su, had brought her to her home country, away from the memories on her first crush who she had thought died.

 

Perhaps Molmolian clothes weren't exactly something that the Japanese people would find comfortable wearing. It exposed too much skin, in Shinobu's opinion, and even wearing her jacket, she was giving an eyeful to many men around her. She even grimaced somewhat when one of the guy's girlfriend just slapped him hard for staring too long.

 

She needed new clothes.

 

Her fare hurried away, making the taxi driver whistle in regret. In his opinion, he just witnessed one of the most beautiful women walk away from him. He chuckled, wondering when he'll meet a girl like her again.

 

He checked the money he was given to for the first time. He blinked, and looked at it closely. He was pretty sure the Japanese Yen didn't have such weird eye symbols.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

“Repeat that?” Heiji asked towards the phone, wondering if they finally stumbled into something solid.

 

“A report was just called in. A taxi driver had dropped off a woman with dark blue hair, who paid him with funny money. The money she had given was identified as the Molmol currency, Demam.”

 

“How long ago was this?” the man asked.

 

“About fifteen minutes ago. It was reported immediately because the taxi driver thought he got duped.”

 

“Give me the area where she was dropped.”

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

Shinobu's eyes widened when she was suddenly given a rather large sum of Yen with the Demam she had just exchanged earlier. The money-exchanger had been professional, but his hands shook slightly, as he had began to count the money again. It was one thing to tally all profits by the end of the day, but it was something else to count large sums to give to a single person, who, by the look of her shock-stricken face, was just as surprised.

 

“A-ano… are you sure this is right?” Shinobu asked. She had worried somewhat that he had underpaid her cab driver when she paid him in Demam, but was now wondering if he may have overpaid him instead.

 

“One Demam is about ten-thousand yen,” the teller stated. “For one hundred Demam, the sum of one million Yen-”

 

Shinobu panicked at the amount. “No, wait! Wait!” she exclaimed. There was no need for such an extravagant amount! She dove towards her bag, where she had kept her savings, and began to openly count the Demam bills. After folding a few more hundred Demams, she finally found her smaller bills, and put down a fifty Demam bill.

 

“Here!” she stated, rather awkwardly. “Just… this.”

 

The teller nodded, and handed back the hundred Demam, and took the fifty, and recounted five hundred thousand yen, still a very good amount. Placing the cash in a medium sized envelope, he handed her the whole thing, and allowed her to count it.

 

“Thank you,” she stated, still feeling some doubt about the money. Still… it helps. The money she got now would really come a long way when she will buy clothes that would attract less attention, provide food and a nice roof above her head before she would go and visit her father. Still… she hadn't expected her savings to be worth this much.

 

As she left, she didn't notice the teller grabbing his cell phone, and made a call.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

The darkness was coming. Heiji could see the sun fade, with the sky washed in red transforming to the dark shade of blue as the sun began to fade. There was a feeling of unease as he felt a need to rush out and find the Maehara woman, but couldn't find a reason why. He never questioned the feeling though… his inner gut was quite accurate in getting the general sense of dread he would feel… he felt it before Kudo fell on the chasm when he was still a kid and he also felt it before the test results of his cram school would show he had somehow failed English.

 

He and his officers have finally arrived exactly on the area where the taxi driver had claimed he had dropped off the woman. Asking a few people on the streets, showing her pictures (the recent ones were pretty old, but they most still recognized her), and although they would not exactly point out where she was exactly, it at least confirmed to Heiji that they were in the correct area.

 

While Yosubei, Miyamoto, Kensuke are spreading out, asking more people about the Maehara Shinobu, Heiji looked around for a few moments, his mind working slightly on a few details, trying to find a theory in which to help him on his search. From all the information he had gathered, Maehara Shinobu had just arrived in Japan from Molmol. Paying a cab driver in Demam, the next logical step would be exchanging her money to Yen.

 

She hadn't done so in the airport. Maybe she forgot? Well, no matter. The fact she had done so means her next logical destination would be an exchange teller, and since the banks are now closed, the pawnshops would be next.

 

There were three of them on his current vicinity. Hurrying off, he went to the one closest to him, and went towards the tellers. Flashing his badge, and a picture of Shinobu got nothing. Apparently, she hadn't passed this place. Taking that to face value for now, he went immediately to the next pawnshop hoping for more luck.

 

“Excuse me,” Heiji called, noticing a brief moment of stiffness at the response of the teller. Well, he did come in unannounced. Plus it was pretty dark outside now… he wished that the store had more internal lighting.

 

“Good evening sir,” the teller smiled. “May I help you?”

 

“Yes,” Heiji approached, noticing the man in a jacket in front of the teller looking somewhat shady. He ignored that and flashed his badge. “Have you seen this woman around?” and this time, he showed Shinobu's picture. “She's a bit younger here, but she's currently at least at her late teens. The word out also says she's been wearing-” and he stopped for a moment when in the corner of his eye, he spotted the teller slowly closing the drawer where he kept the cash.

 

There it was. A Demam. Everything after that was a flash. The shady man in front of the counter went for his hip, and Heiji, automatically reacted as he was trained to. He ducked, his hand going for his holster, while the man grabbed out a handgun, and took a wild shot. He had been aiming for Heiji, but since he ducked, the shot missed him, but hit the teller on the shoulder, who shouted out in pain and surprise.

 

With his gun out, Heiji aimed and shot towards the other man's knee. He went down in a heap, his cry vibrating in the pawnshop. A rather large huge amount of Demams flurried out of a small brown envelope tethering out of his inner jacket pocket.

 

“Congratulations, my friend, you just gave yourself away.” Heiji stated as he holstered his gun and immediately grabbed the handcuffs from the back of his belt. Pinning the two hands of the perpetrator on his own back, Heiji turned the man forcefully to face him. “Now,” he took out the photo of Shinobu again, and asked, “Where is she?”

 

To Be Continued…

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

Author's Notes:

 

Well, that came out much better. I think I'm getting a hang of this… but… meh. Its Febuary. Any gamer fan knows what's coming in Febuary right? Yup… Killzone 2. But… promise! I shall write more! :P Take care guys, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.