Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digidreams Do Come True! ❯ The Case of the Missing Children! ( Chapter 11 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Relaxing Pikachu 
As the title indicates, it's becoming known that the Chosen Children have gone missing.
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Adventure / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 05.07.2007 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.6K | Visits: 568 | Status: Work In Progress
As the title indicates, it's becoming known that the Chosen Children have gone missing.
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Adventure / Action | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 05.07.2007 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.6K | Visits: 568 | Status: Work In Progress
Hello again everyone. Hope you’re enjoying this so far. This chapter ended up a bit lengthy so I was tempted to drop an entire section. It consists of a flashback of when Iori and his mother found out of his father’s death. Mrs. Hida is thinking back to the incident. I did find it cute and nice, but a bit unnecessary, so for those who would like to read the flashback, go ahead. If you don’t, just skip it over. Now, as always, I do not own anything dealing with the series; Toei and Bandai have that pleasure.
“I am sorry, Inoue-san, but Miyako-chan isn’t here,” she told Miyako’s worried father. “I haven’t seen her in the longest time since she’s entered junior high school.”
….
“Don’t worry. If I see her, I’ll tell her to go straight home.”
….
“I can imagine her mother being a bit worried if she’s usually home by now.”
….
“No, Iori hasn’t gotten home yet, but I’ll be sure to ask if he’s seen her when he does.”
….
“Okay, and don’t worry. I do promise to let Miyako-chan know that you’re looking for her if I see her.”
The woman sighed as she hanged up the phone, an old man pulling on his mustache greeting her and taking a seat on the couch. “What’s the matter, my child,” Mr. Hida asked, noticing the partially stressed look on his daughter-in-law’s face.
“All of the calls that I’ve gotten this evening is the problem,” she complained, taking a seat beside the man. “I’ve never received so many calls at one time before! The earlier calls were from salesmen and solicitors, which is normal, but still bothersome. All evening they’ve been calling here, trying to sell stuff! I don’t know how much more polite I can remain if they keep calling here.”
“That call just now was from a solicitor?”
She shook her head. “No, that was Inoue-san (Mr. Inoue). He was looking for Miyako-chan, and if we’d seen her. She was supposed to have gotten home a couple of hours ago.”
“She could still be at school. She’s been a bit late every week, I’ve noticed. I seem to always bump into her when coming home from my dojo.”
“That could be it; he did say that she’s been working on a school project all week and that she was supposed to have stayed back, but the school is closed now. His wife tried phoning the school, but got no answer, and they’ve tried her mobile phone, but didn’t get a response.”
“That is rather odd.”
“Speaking of children who should be home, where is Iori? Didn’t he leave before you did?”
The old man chuckled as he gave her a smug smile. “I saw him associating with a pretty young lady when on my way home in front of the mart not too far from the dojo. He was deeply engrossed in conversation with her, so I kept on, not wanting to interfere or embarrass him.”
She didn’t like this response at all. She was getting this really anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach, and for some odd reason, was beginning to grow worrisome. “Father! It’s almost time for dinner! He should be here by now!”
“Have you not noticed how something seems to be bothering him and how he’s being a bit secretive?”
“Well, yes, but what does that have to do with Iori not being at home right now?”
“It is quite obvious that something is bothering him, and I sense that it’s a crush for a certain young lady,” he finally got out while rubbing his chin. “Maybe the girl I saw him talking with is the one he has feelings for.”
“A girl?” She shook her head. “I think I know my Iori much better than that. If he had a problem, he’d come to me with it, like he always has.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Mr. Hida wisely input. “A boy Iori’s age doesn’t go to his mother with these types of problems, usually. Boys normally go to their…fathers…” He stopped as a grief-stricken look appeared on his face, after realizing what he’d said. Mrs. Hida had an equivalent look. “You don’t suppose the reason that he could be upset is because of his missing his father, or that he didn’t get the opportunity to know him as well as he wanted to, do you?”
“Who knows,” Mrs. Hida sighed heavily, her eyes beginning to sting. “I really do miss him. Thinking back, Iori really didn’t know his father very well. He was so young when he died.”
“Do not worry, my child,” he gave her a small hug, “it’ll be all right, as long as you remember a lost loved one at his or her best.”
“That’s true, father, which is why we do have a shrine set up for him in respect of his memory, but Iori still can’t remember much because of how young he was! He probably feels that something is missing, and is looking for the answer to find out more about who he is, since he resembles him so much. He’s the splitting image of him, from the way he eats his food down to the way he laces his shoes!
“If he is having girl troubles, and really needs a male figure, why doesn’t he just talk to you about it?”
“I suppose that I am not the right person for him to talk to my dear.”
“It’s like I’m starting to lose him, father,” she complained. “He never used to keep things from me; I feel as if I’m useless to him right now. I know he’s always been a bit mature for his age, but he still acted like a typical child at times. I guess I just really miss those times. I wasn’t expecting him to grow up so fast.”
“Now you know one of the toughest parts about being a parent; watching your child grow up, and missing the times where they relied on you.”
She looked over towards her father-in-law, something nagging at the back of her mind. “I-I sometimes wonder how Iori would have turned out if his father was still alive. I wonder if he still would have turned out as mature as he had at such a young age if he were still alive. He acts more adult than some people my age when he was only eight years old!”
“Unfortunately, my child, we will never know…”
Mrs. Hida faced forward, staring at the living room television blankly, her mind wandering back to the painful day when her husband had passed away...
****
A four-year-old Iori was sitting contently on the kitchen floor, playing animatedly with a new Pokemon toy that his father had just recently given him. His young mother smiled at the sight.
“Are you having fun, Iori?” a younger Mrs. Hida asked.
Iori looked up from his spot and smiled playfully. “I sure am! When is papa coming home?”
“Pretty soon,” she answered, kneeling down beside the boy, “and we’re going to give him a big surprise!”
“The dinner that we made for him, mama?”
“Hai, hai!” she nodded with a smile.
“Yay! I can’t wait!!” Iori stood up and cheered.
“I’m sure your father will enjoy the surprise smorgasbord dinner we made for him to celebrate his being promoted earlier this week. He’s also going to be proud of his son for helping preparing some of his favorite appetizers and dishes: Onigiri with umeboshi filling for tomorrow, age-gyooza, kushiyaki, miso ramen topped with barbecued pork, negi, scallions, and much more! You also did a good job making his favorite dish, sushi rolls. You father really likes makizushi.”
“The sushi rolls I helped make don’t look too good,” Iori frowned.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure with some more practice you’ll make the best sushi rolls in the entire world!”
Iori clapped happily, as she hugged him, loving the embrace. No matter what, Iori always brought a smile to her face, especially when he showed to be happy. Iori had helped to prepare everything; well, more so handed her things while she cooked, but he did help with the sushi and helped with dessert.
“What about dessert?” the round-faced boy asked after getting out of his mother’s embrace.
“Now how can we forget about dessert,” the woman laughed while standing. “I’m sure he’ll enjoy the strawberry crème cake we made; perfect for the summer.”
“I got to taste the frosting!! It was good!”
“Okay now,” the woman started as she took off her apron, “since we’ve spent all day cooking all these foods for your father, let’s go set up the table. He should be coming home very soon.”
“Is ojiisama coming to dinner?”
“No, not to day.” She hung up her apron on the swinging kitchen door. “Your grandfather is going out to dinner with some old friends of his from the police force.”
“Oh.”
Both Iori and his mother set the table; Iori putting down the utensils, like the chopsticks on the chopstick stand, in the correct places, while his mother set out the actual food dishes. She found it a bit difficult to organize, since she’d prepared such an odd combination of foods that one would usually get at a restaurant. Iori was happy just to set up the basic “non-food” dishes on the table; it made him feel grown up.
After they’d finished setting the table, everything set for three, they decided to watch television while awaiting her husband. *Given the time, she knew that one of Iori’s favorite evening animated shows was on; Pocket Monsters.
The woman grew a bit bothered as she looked up at the wall clock, seeing that it was now 19:13 (7:13), and that her husband wasn’t home yet. She knew it wasn’t a late day for him, and that he was actually starting up his vacation. She stood from her comfortable place on the couch in front of the television.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, I’m just going to keep your father’s drink warm,” she told the boy distractedly. “He always preferred his sake warm, even during the summer.”
Iori could only shrug, and turned his attention back towards the television, curious as to what Satoshi (Ash), Kasumi (Misty), and Takeshi (Brock) were going to do next and how they were going to defeat Roketto Dan (Team Rocket).
Mrs. Hida went to do as she’d said. She took the still closed bottle, and small cup and set it aside someplace so that it’d remain warm. While she was attending to this task, she had the strangest, most unsettling feeling in the pits of her stomach. She just had this uneasy feeling that something was wrong dealing with her husband, but she just couldn’t figure out what it was exactly.
Her thoughts were soon broken by Iori’s laughter and his calling to her. “Mama, you’re going to miss all the funny parts!”
She shook her head and came back to reality. “I-I’ll be in there in a bit, Iori.”
Making her way back to the living room, she took her seat beside Iori, as she continued to watch the evening kiddy programming with the currently distracted, young oblivious Iori. More time passed. Mrs. Hida looked back up at the wall clock, and it was now almost 20:15 (8:15). ‘Where could he be? He should have gotten home almost two hours ago!’ She looked down and noticed Iori, who looked as if he was about to fall asleep in her lap. “Iori, it’s getting a bit late, so I want you to eat your dinner. You’re a growing boy, and you need to eat so that you can grow up nice and healthy, just like your father.”
“But, mama,” the boy began with a yawn, “I want to wait for papa.”
“Iori, please don’t argue with me,” the woman distantly ordered. “Just go eat your dinner. I don’t want you eating so late that you end up having nightmares.”
“But what about papa?”
“I promise you that the next time your father doesn’t have a late day, we’ll all celebrate along with Hida-ojiisan. Your father was planning on taking us all out tomorrow, which is why we prepared so much onigiri. He’s taking us to Disney Land. We’ll go there, then we can come back home for a special dinner prepared by both you and me.”
“You promise?”
“Have I ever lied to you?”
Iori thought for a moment and shook his head. “No, because papa always says that lying is wrong.”
“Good. Now, you go get into your pajamas, and we’ll just eat together. I’ll have to put your father’s food aside.”
Iori nodded and took off, while Mrs. Hida brought out a tray to take away her husband’s place at the table. She didn’t know why doing so, made her almost want to cry. ‘I have to get a hold of myself. Why am I feeling this way?’
After returning the tray to the kitchen, and regaining her composure, the phone rang. She rushed to the phone, her heart racing, hoping that it was her husband. “Moshi-moshi…Hida residence.”
The person to respond, was a male with a somewhat gruff voice, who sounded a bit unenthusiastic.
“Is something wrong?”
“Hello there, Hida-san,” the man on the other end replied slowly.
“Hello?”
“I-I don’t know how to tell you this, but…” he trailed off, as he tried to figure out a way to get the words out.
“Tell me what?” That feeling of dread was now returning to her; she had the feeling that something was most definitely wrong. “May I ask who’s speaking?”
“I’m sorry for being so rude, ma’am. I am Officer Fisher of the Kanto Kanku Keisatsu-kyoku (Kanto Regional Police Bureau).”
“Fisher?” She thought for a moment, trying to recall who this man was. “Oh, I remember you, Fisher-san! You were at the company gathering last summer. Hiroki-san speaks very highly of you. Are you and your family still enjoying your stay here in Japan since you’ve transferred here last year?”
“It’s very nice that Hida-sama has said nice things about me, and yes, my family and I like it here very much,” the man stated plainly. “It’s much different than England, but I’ve gotten used to it.”
“You and your wife should join Hiroki-san and me some time for a dinner out. It’s rare that we get to see you or Officer Takahoshi around.” She noticed that the other end had gone quiet. Was he calling from a mobile phone? “Oh, I’m sorry for going so off topic, Fisher-san. What is it that you wanted to tell me? I’m sure it’s a message from my husband.”
“Not exactly…”
Mrs. Hida opened up a bottle of juice, and began to pour its contents into a glass so that Iori could have it with his dinner. “What do you mean?”
The dark-haired man, sighed uneasily as he ran his hand through his head, trying to deliver the disheartening news. “I am, well, afraid to inform you that…your husband…a great man, that Hida-sama,” he rambled, “was…was…killed while trying to protect a very important Government Official today.”
Mrs. Hida couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. It couldn’t be true; there was no way possible of this being true. She stood there, her eyes wide and in shock, as the juice she was pouring spilled over. She didn’t even realize that she had done so, and was still holding the bottle, pouring, even though it was completely empty.
At that very moment, Iori had made his way back into kitchen in his Sandopan (Sandslash) pajamas that he’d received not too long ago from his grandfather. He’d always loved Sando (Sandshrew) and Sandopan. He never understood why those two particular Pokemon in general were favored. He just enjoyed the way they were, and how they could “dig” underground and such. Iori noticed the mess, and her blank, shocked look while holding the cordless phone limply in her hand.
“Mama, you wasted the juice all over the floor,” he told her, while pulling on her sleeve. Iori noticed the look his mother was wearing; it didn’t seem cheery or anything, like it would be usually. “Mama, what’s wrong?”
She didn’t say anything, as she held the phone in her hand. She felt as if she was in another world. “His partner should be over shortly to explain all of the details, Hida-san,” he replied sadly. “I really am sorry about this, Hida-san. I really am.”
“Okay…okay…goodbye,” she managed to get out before dropping the phone onto the floor.
“Mama?”
Mrs. Hida walked away from the mess, like some type of a zombie, and took a seat at the kitchen table. After a couple of seconds of eerie silence, the woman just broke down and cried. She just couldn’t bring herself to accept the fact that her husband was dead, and was even more distraught over the fact that she’d have to share this information with Iori.
As much as he tried, Iori still couldn’t get his mother’s attention, and was starting to grow a bit scared over the fact that she wasn’t responding to him. A short while later, a knock on the door was heard. His mother was still in a state of shock and borderline denial, and was pretty much wailing. Iori could only shrug, as he made his way towards the front door, asking who it was first, of course, as he’d always been taught to never open the door to strangers. Recognizing the voice of the male at the door, the boy stood on tip-toe to open it.
The man to stand before him was the partner of Iori’s father, as well as one of his best friends; Takahoshi Ohmori. Normally, his father’s other good friend, Oikawa Yukio, hanged around, but he wasn’t this time. As a matter of fact, it was rare to see the reclusive man at all lately. Iori didn’t really know him all that well, and neither did his mother, but his father spoke highly of him quite often. One could probably count on one hand how many times Oikawa had actually visited the Hida household within the previous year.
Iori let Mr. Takahoshi in. He still didn’t understand what was going on, why his mother had left such a mess, why she was crying, or why Mr. Takahoshi was in his home when his father wasn’t. Iori noticed that Mr. Takahoshi looked a bit down.
“Thank you, Iori-kun...” he thanked him quietly, as he stepped out of his shoes. “Where is your mother?”
He led him to the kitchen table, where the woman continued to cry. After seeing her in such a state, the only thing he could say, his voice mournful and quiet to her, was, “I guess you received the news already.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on!” Iori complained, wanting some answers. “Where is papa, Takahoshi-sama? Is he with Oikawa-san?”
Mrs. Hida rose from the spot she’d been in for so very long, and spoke in a gentle voice as she addressed Takahoshi, asking if he would like any tea, which he politely declined.
Iori could tell from her tone, that whatever was going on couldn’t have been good. She kneeled down and hugged Iori tightly, as some of her tears fell on top of the young boy’s head.
“Mama?” With a sob, she let go of him, and held him by the shoulders. Iori’s perplexed look was even more evident now. “Mama, what’s going on? Why are you crying?”
She took in a deep breath, and painfully explained to Iori that his father had been killed and how he’d never physically come home. Iori stood there in shock, extremely quiet. He didn’t understand much where death was concerned, but he did understand that it meant that he’d never see his father again.
Officer Takahoshi explained everything to them, as he tried his best not to cry himself. Takahoshi wasn’t there to witness the account, but he told the two of Mr. Hida’s heroism, and how he was trying to talk the radicals into putting down their weapons while he, himself, was unarmed; no gun nor vest. Iori could no longer take the negative tone of the depressing conversation and ran off screaming, “I HATE THEM!! THEY TOOK PAPA AWAY FROM US!!” and cried, slamming his bedroom door behind him.
Mrs. Hida was at a loss as to what to do, as she stared after her only son…
****
‘Oh Iori, I’m sorry you had to go through all of that, and I’m even more sorry that that promise was broken in that way. I’m sorry that you didn’t have the opportunity to know your father as well as you should have.
‘I shouldn’t feel guilty; it was just his time to go, which I’m sure Iori understands…but, we rarely ever talk about Hiroki-san, even though we visit his grave often and pray here at home. Maybe we should talk about him more.
‘I remember Iori’s reaction to the trial all too well. The man who killed Hiroki-san apologized, and how the gun going off was just an accident. They were only trying to scare the man my husband was trying to protect. Iori’s look was filled with pure hatred and malice; a look I’d never seen with him before. Everyone deserves to be forgiven, even if he did something horrible. If he’s truly sorry for what was done, then it shouldn’t be held against him, right?
‘Iori became extremely serious after that. He was no longer the playful, happy child I’d been so used of, since it was robbed of him. He took everything seriously, even games. If someone cheated, and he knew it, he’d lecture on how it’s wrong, and how cheating symbolized ‘evil’ and how they weren’t worthy of his time. He couldn’t get along with the other children when in his first year of elementary.
‘We had to move from out of that house, since everything there was painful and had to switch schools because of Iori. We had to get away from all of that negativity and sadness. I’m forever grateful that ojiisan started teaching him Kendo, and I’m also glad that he met Miyako-chan when he was seven after moving to this section of Odaiba. He started to lighten up and began to act like a child again, though not entirely, since he did still act serious, but didn’t go around criticizing the other children, either…’
“Yoo-hoo,” Mr. Hida called while waving a hand in front of his daughter-in-law’s face, “anybody home in there?”
She jumped. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was just thinking about some things.”
“What type of things? You were deep in thought for a good while.”
“I’ll discuss it later; I just wish Iori would hurry up and come home. I want to talk with him to see how he truly feels over the death of his father. He’s always seemed okay, but since he’s getting older, maybe it’s bothering him. I get this feeling that he never fully coped with his death…”
“I don’t feel that any person does,” the old man inputted wisely.
Before she could respond, the phone rang. She sighed in exasperation. “Hold on.” The ringing of the phone was starting to grate her nerves. She took in a deep breath to calm herself before answering, since it’d be rude to answer in any other fashion. “Moshi-moshi.” The person on the other end spoke, which surprised her, since it was rare for this woman to call. “Izumi-san, why are you calling? Are you okay?”
….
“Oh no,” apologized Mrs. Hida, “I’m just surprised that you called since it’s not often that you do. I apologize for my rude response. What’s the matter?”
….
“No, I haven’t seen Koushirou-kun. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, and whenever I do see him around here, he’s always with Miyako-chan. I guess my seeing him less and less has a lot to do with the fact that he’s in his last year of junior high, which is always the most difficult since they’re usually preparing for high school entrance exams.”
….
“No, Iori isn’t here yet, but when he comes home, I’ll be sure to ask if he’s seen your son.”
While Mrs. Hida was busy on the phone, Grandfather Hida, had heard a knock, and went to answer it. At the door, was a beautiful, young blonde-haired woman with big, bright blue eyes (usually), only this time they were red and puffy, like she’d been crying. He let her in, and led her to the couch.
‘What is going on around here,’ Mrs. Hida wondered while hanging up the phone. ‘First Miyako-chan hasn’t come home, and now Koushirou-kun is missing.’ She rejoined her father-in-law, to see a blonde-haired woman crying hysterically. “*Natsuko-san?! What’s the matter?”
“M-my Takeru is missing!”
“Natsuko-san, calm down.” She sat down beside her. “Everything will be okay.”
“I’ll go prepare some tea,” Mr. Hida offered as he took to the kitchen.
“Now, what do you mean Takeru-kun is missing?”
“The exact way that I said it,” the woman continued to sob. “Takeru is missing, and so is Hikari-chan! Her mother called over my place looking for her. I also just watched some of the news, and there was some commotion going on down at that new pizza place and that’s where Takeru and his friends were supposed to have been going!
“They found his hat down there! It looked exactly like Takeru’s! He picked it out when I took him to visit his grandfather in Paris when he was just eight! My father got it for him and he’s loved it ever since! He usually never takes it off, except for when he has to! He’d never just leave it behind unless something happened! I wouldn’t even be worrying right now, if I hadn’t have heard that brief report earlier about an abduction!”
“Wh-what?”
Right at that moment, Mr. Hida returned with a tray, and set it out on the table, pouring out a cup for the three of them. When done, he flipped on the television to Fuji TV. “Hmm, looks like a news special is on...” he noted, as he took his seat.
“Hello there everyone,” the TV anchor greeted. “This is Yamauchi Mori here coming to you live from Aqua City Odaiba for FNN with your evening news recaps, as well as more on the strange abductions from earlier. Now, as we reported earlier today, there were some strange happenings occurring right here in Odaiba. Eye witnesses claimed to have seen a tornado right here in Aqua City, which didn’t cause any damage, but apparently, it caused an actual abduction. I’m here right now with one of the eye witnesses.”
The young anchorwoman turned to the eye witness, who commented, “I saw it with my own eyes!”
“Hello sir. Would you please introduce yourself to our viewers?”
He nodded. “*Yoshihiro Isao dasu.”
“Yoshihiro-san, could you now please explain to our viewers what happened?”
The somewhat chubby man wearing the bright blue shirt and beige pants nodded. It was quite obvious that he wasn’t from the Kanto region based on his vernacular. His accent was more so westernized (he had a bit of a drawl), as if from Kansai region.
“I was sitting at that pizza place there,” he pointed to the outdoor parlour, “having myself some lunch, when this tornado just formed from out of no place! When I saw it, I took out my phone, and started recording it. I never knew Odaiba got strange storms like that. I had just got in from Shiba Park since I’ve always liked visiting Tokyo Tower, and was about to visit a relative, but was a bit hungry.
For the viewers at home, they began to show the footage that the man had recorded. Miss Yamauchi asked the man to explain it, as they had a monitor there for him to view.
“See, this is when I first started filming. The strangest thing about this tornado, other than the fact that it didn’t cause any damage, was that there were a couple of kids nearby. It looked like those two kids I saw got pulled right into it after that big flash of light, but it’s probably a bit difficult to make out since it is just a camera phone. I’m surprised no one else got footage of it.”
“This is indeed a strange occurrence, and this was found nearby at the scene.” She held up a dingy-white object. “It appears to be a hat, which we showed you viewers earlier. The owner is nowhere to be found, and fits the description of the boy who was wearing it before he mysteriously vanished.”
****
“That is Takeru’s hat!!” Ms. Takaishi trembled. “I told you that it was his! I knew I saw it right!!”
****
“Hold, this just in,” Miss Yamauchi started while listening to what was being told through her earpiece. “Apparently, there was trouble down at the…” she blinked in surprise, “Fuji TV station? This is quite surprising. We go there live now with Nishiyama Kenji-san for the report.”
The screen split, showing Mr. Nishiyama standing in front of the Fuji TV station, while Miss Yamauchi was shown at the pizza parlor.
“It seems that the same thing happened here earlier this afternoon, Yamauchi-san,” Mr. Nishiyama informed her. “Eye witnesses claim that a young boy fitting the description of Ishida Yamato, the lead member for the Teen-Age Wolves, was taken into a strange vortex. Ishida Hiroaki-san is the station manager here, and is also the father of this young, 16-year-old boy.”
****
“Yamato!! Not my Yamato!” the woman screamed hysterically. “That no good ex of mine, letting Yamato get abducted!!!”
“Hold on, Natsuko-san,” Mrs. Hida pleaded, trying to calm the woman, “maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was someone who strongly resembled your boys.”
Ms. Takaishi began to rock back and forth, her eyes growing even more puffy and red. “I’ve lost both of my boys,” she sobbed into a tissue, not really taking in anything her friend was saying.
****
The screen was no longer split, and just showed Mr. Nishiyama. “We have a couple of girls who witnessed this abduction, and called it in. Here we have 19-year-old Motomiya Jun-san and her friend, 20-year-old Kokiri Mai-san.” He turned to the two girls. “Could you please explain what happened in your own words?”
The camera panned out as he held his microphone to the two, allowing them to tell their story. “We were just on our way to the station to pick up our pre-ordered tickets and passes for tomorrow night’s show and to meet up with our friend, Inoue Momoe-chan,” the maroon, big-haired Jun explained. “We saw Yamato-kun coming from out of the station.”
The long-haired girl beside Jun nodded in agreement and added on, “We saw this lightning bolt strike the tower up there at the top of the Fuji TV station, and then it hit him, but the bolt looked like it was from far off. He looked like he was in terrible pain, too.”
“After that, we saw this weird looking vortex open up in the sky, and it pulled him right in!”
“Do you two girls know Yamato-kun well enough to know that it was actually him? Could there be a case of mistaken identity?”
“I’ve never met him directly, but Jun-chan seems to know him personally.”
“Not really,” Jun slightly blushed. “He was just a pretty face, who I strongly admired when I was younger, but I grew out of that. I guess we’re so-so friends now. I still talk to him sometimes.”
Also with the two girls, were two tall guys, who were waiting to be addressed by the reporter; it was both Akira and Yutaka. “Now, please, in your own words, could you describe what happened?”
“We weren’t around here when whatever happened, happened,” Akira explained. “We were just practicing for our upcoming gig Saturday night. It’s going to be one of our most important performances ever!”
“Too bad we couldn’t practice long since Ishida had to run.”
“And where might that have been?”
“C’mon man,” Yutaka exclaimed in disbelief, “isn’t that like an invasion of privacy or something?”
“We are just concerned, and wondering if it would help any as to where he may have been taken or ended up.”
“I guess we can tell a little,” Akira spoke up. “He was planning on meeting up with someone at Kasai Rinkai Kooen; well, that’s what he told us anyway.”
“Okay, thank you for that information. We will now have a word with the television station’s manager, Ishida Hiraoki-san.” The camera turned to show an incredibly distressed Mr. Ishida, who looked like he was ready to just break down. “Now, do you have any comments or words for anyone out there, Ishida-san?”
“I’m at a loss right now. I don’t understand what’s going on, and it doesn’t make any sense to me,” the middle-aged man sighed. “How can anyone get pulled into the sky? It just doesn’t make any sense!! I just hope someone can find my son. I have already contacted the police department and they are on the job.”
“Let us all hope that this goes well for you, Ishida-san.” Right at that moment, the man held his ear, receiving some new information. “This just in; the identities of the two children who were abducted this afternoon has been narrowed down and revealed. We go back to Yamauchi-san who has more information on that.”
“Thank you, Nishiyama-san. The identities of the two children have been identified based on the process of elimination. Apparently, they were both first-year students of Odaiba Junior High. The girl has been identified as being Yagami Hikari, age 13, and along with her was Takaishi Takeru, also 13. We are being told that the two were supposed to have met up with friends here, but the friends never showed up, and it appeared that the two were leaving.
“The hat, we have determined, belonged to him. The police are now contacting the parents of these two children to let them know what’s going on. Until we know what we are dealing with, we recommend that all school-bound children remain inside their homes. We don’t know why these three children have been taken or why they could’ve been taken, and would like to avoid any more vanishings if possible.”
She held her earpiece again, getting more information. “Hold on, I’m getting another update. According to this, ever since this broadcast, we are getting more and more phone calls about missing children and there was a strange occurrence over at the *Odaiba Shigaku no Chinou (‚¨‘äꎄŠw‚Ì’ m”\); the private institution known for their outstanding academic achievers. It’s another disappearance. We will have more details on that as soon as they come in.
“As for right now, the young persons we are sure of are as follows: Yagami Hikari, Takaishi Takeru, and Ishida Yamato. To add on to the list, we now have concerned parents calling in about a first year student of Odaiba High, Yagami Taichi; Takenouchi Sora, also a first year at Odaiba High; Motomiya Daisuke, a first year of Odaiba Junior High; Ichijouji Ken, also a first year of Odaiba Junior High; Izumi Koushirou, a third year student of Odaiba Junior High, who was last seen with second year student, Inoue Miyako and a third year, Meihui Chiu. If anyone has any information on these missing people, please contact your local precinct as soon as possible, or contact us, so that we can help assist the police in their investigation and search.”
The screen split once again showing both Mr. Nishiyama (at the Fuji TV station) and Miss Yamauchi in Aqua City Odaiba. “I hope that this broadcast will help them return home.” The man noticed the looks on the faces of those with him, Mr. Ishida and Jun’s the most notable. “Ishida-san, Motomiya-san; what is the matter?”
“Did Yamauchi-san just mention Takaishi Takeru?”
“What about Motomiya Daisuke!” Jun panicked.
“Yes, that’s what I heard, and we all just watched her broadcast.”
“Oh no, my brother!!”
“Oh my god…my son!!”
“Um, folks, it seems that Takaishi Takeru is also the son of Ishida-san, and this Motomiya Daisuke-kun is the younger brother of our eye witness, Motomiya-san.”
“I don’t want you guys to give up your search!” Mr. Ishida seriously instructed. “I want you to find both of my sons, and all the kids involved, even if it takes you all night and day! I want Takeru home with his mother, safe and sound!”
“And find my brother!” Jun ordered. “Sure I said some mean things to him that I didn’t really mean and the same probably goes for him, but I do love him very much!” The girl began to cry, as she grabbed Mr. Nishiyama’s microphone, and stepping close to the camera. “Daisuke, if you’re listening to this, please be okay and don’t worry! Wherever you are, we will find you!”
“There you have it folks; two people who are close with the victims,” Miss Yamauchi announced from her end. “So, if you can, please help. Are these indeed strange alien abductions, or are they just very clever kidnappings? Only time will tell. We now go to Morimoto Reika-san live with the weather and we will be back with any further information dealing with the strange disappearances of…hold on, I’m getting a name on the school abduction. The name of this student is Kido Jou, a 17 year old in his 11th year and---”
Mrs. Hida turned the television off. This was growing rather depressing. Ms. Takaishi stood up. “I’m going out right now!”
“But Natsuko-san, you can’t go out in the state of mind that you’re in.”
“I don’t give a damn!!” she snapped, her hair flying as she shook her head. “Both of my sons are missing! I don’t care about anything else right now! I’m going out to look for them!”
“It’ll probably be best if we…” Mrs. Hida stopped shortly, as something came to her mind. All of the children who were adducted were Chosen Children; Iori hadn’t come home yet, and the report had gone on for at least twenty minutes. She hoped that the connection she had been sub-consciously making turned out to mean nothing. “I really wish Iori would hurry home.”
“It is quite strange how he hasn’t returned yet, unless that girl has his full undivided attention, and the boy just lost track of the time.”
“Ojiisan, could you describe the girl you saw Iori with? Maybe I know her mother or father.” Mrs. Hida nodded as the man described the girl to her, knowing at once who it was. “That sounds like Eiji-chan.”
*“Eiji? What kind of a name is that for a girl? It could be written to mean ‘second son’.”
Mrs. Hida shrugged. “I know it’s an odd name, but I don’t think it’s spelled in Kanji, father, unless they used the reading meaning ‘supreme ruler’, but I couldn’t see that, since the name is still pretty masculine. It’s probably written in katakana.”
“I guess, but it’s still odd.”
“I met her family at a school meeting a while back. I’m a pretty good friend of her mother’s. We go marketing together. I’ll go give her a call to see if Iori is over there.”
Mrs. Hida made her way to the phone to call Eiji’s mother, while Ms. Takaishi was pacing around impatiently, trying to figure out what she should do. While on the phone, Mrs. Hida noticed how frantic and anxious the middle-aged woman sounded. When asked if Eiji was around, the woman explained while sobbing that she had sent her out to pick up groceries and how she should have been home over an hour ago. She asked if she’d seen her, which she explained that she hadn’t, and that she was with her son. She felt a ping of worry, and held her stomach. Eiji’s mother wasn’t helping the situation at all.
“I’m going out to look for them! Something’s not right. I don’t usually get too worried if they’re late, but this time I can’t help it, especially with the strange abductions.” There was some talking on the other end. “Oh, you want to come along too?...Alright! We’ll be over there soon. See you later.” After putting down the receiver, the woman burst into tears.
“What’s the matter,” Grandfather Hida asked in alarm.
“Eiji-chan wasn’t home, and she should’ve been home a long while ago! Something has happened to her, and if something has happened to her, then something has to have happened to Iori! I’m going out to search for them!”
“Wait, for all we know, the two could be on a date.”
“Father, you know Iori better than that! He’s not the inconsiderate type! He would let us know if he’d changed his mind about coming home! He always has!” She turned to her blonde companion. “Natsuko-san, let’s go.”
She stopped pacing in place and nodded. “Right!”
“I will remain here, just in case someone returns.”
“Good idea, father. Thank you.”
The two women were about to go, when they heard a knock on the front door. After answering, there stood a girl who was about 19 years of age, with long brown hair and thin-rimmed glasses, breathing hard as if she’d just run a marathon.
“Momoe-chan,” the two responded.
“*Konban wa Hida-san, Takaishi-san. Sumimasen, demo…”
Grandfather Hida walked up to the door, holding a glass of water. “Calm down child. Here, drink this.”
The girl graciously took the water, and gulped it down. “Thank you. I’m sorry for my rudeness. I ran all the way up here from the Ai Mart.”
“Momoe-chan, what’s wrong?” Mrs. Hida asked in surprise.
“It’s my mother. She’s going crazy! Once she saw that news report and how it seems like only Chosen Children are missing, she grew all worried and called the police! She tried Miyako’s mobile phone too and got no answer. It said that she’s out of the calling area. She thinks she’s been abducted too.
“My parents have already left for *Kasumigaseki to get to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, while *Mantarou-niichan watches the mart. *Chizuru and I are going to go out and look around for her.”
Before Momoe could continue, her 16-year-old, short-haired sister ran up behind her. She too was out of breath from running up the flight of stairs. Both were too anxious to wait on the elevator. “Well, have they seen him?” asked the girl anxiously.
“I didn’t get the chance to ask yet.” She turned back to the three adults. “Have you guys seen Iori-kun? Maybe he has an idea where Miyako could be.”
Mrs. Hida shook her head sadly, as she explained how they were on their way out to look for Iori.
“Could Chizuru and I come along with you?”
“Of course.”
“Let’s just go find my boys,” Ms. Takaishi choked out between sobs.
With that, they all left to fetch Eiji’s mother, and to commence their search…
***
Note 2: This is Takeru and Yamato’s mother’s original name; Takaishi Natsuko.
***
Note 3: Yes, the “dasu” in the sentence, “Yoshihiro Isao dasu” was intentional. A few sentences down, it is pointed out that this guy seemed to have an accent, like someone would from the “Kansai” region due to his dialect (Kansai-ben) and for that, “desu” is more so pronounced “dasu”. The Kansai region includes places such as Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, etc. Those from there tend to drag their words, or speak with a “drawl”, I guess one could say.
Those from the Kanto region (which includes special wards like Odaiba), don’t, since they tend to speak in Tokyo-ben. For this very reason, that’s why for some anime series, when dubbed over, a character from one of the places mentioned above of the Kansai region, tends to have a country-sounding accent; that’s pretty much the equivalent of those who speak Kansai-ben in Japan.
***
Note 4: Odaiba Shigaku no Chinou (‚¨‘äꎄŠw‚Ì’ m”\) pretty much means, the Odaiba Private School of Intelligence, if I did that right. My mind was blank on names. ^^
***
Note 5: Yes, all; the name “Eiji” is a masculine name, which was pointed out by Iori a couple of chapters back. The kanji readings for it can mean “second son” or “supreme ruler”. I know you’re wondering why I chose such a name for her. To be honest, I have no idea, I just wanted a boyish name for her, although, I probably could’ve just used a unisex name for her, like Aki, Hikaru, Jun, Hiromi, etc., but Eiji seems more interesting sounding. Anywho, if the name is written in Katakana, then it usually has no meaning.
***
Note 6: That simply translates to, “Good evening Mrs. Hida, Ms. Takaishi, I am sorry, but…”
***
Note 7: Mantarou, Momoe, and Chizuru are the real names of Miyako’s older siblings. Mantarou is the oldest, and is the one who was in college during 02. Momoe was in high school during 02, and best friends with Jun (Daisuke’s sister). She has the long hair. Chizuru has the short hair, and is in the same year as Taichi, Sora, and Yamato. She’s also in Yamato’s class.
***
Note 8: Kasumigaseki (‰à‚ªŠÖ) is a district of Tokyo of the Chiyoda Ward. It’s inland. You can reach there (I guess from Odaiba) by car or train.
Chapter 11: “ˆÉDA‚Ç‚±‚Å‚& middot;‚©H ¡‹A‚Á‚Ä‚‚¾̵ 8;³‚¢!”
“Iori, doko desuka? Ima kaette kudasai!”
“Iori, where are you? Please come home now!” The Case of the Missing Children!
Back at the Hida home, it was being over run by many phone calls, but being the polite, courteous woman she was, the dark, long-haired Mrs. Hida answered each and every call.“Iori, doko desuka? Ima kaette kudasai!”
“Iori, where are you? Please come home now!” The Case of the Missing Children!
“I am sorry, Inoue-san, but Miyako-chan isn’t here,” she told Miyako’s worried father. “I haven’t seen her in the longest time since she’s entered junior high school.”
….
“Don’t worry. If I see her, I’ll tell her to go straight home.”
….
“I can imagine her mother being a bit worried if she’s usually home by now.”
….
“No, Iori hasn’t gotten home yet, but I’ll be sure to ask if he’s seen her when he does.”
….
“Okay, and don’t worry. I do promise to let Miyako-chan know that you’re looking for her if I see her.”
The woman sighed as she hanged up the phone, an old man pulling on his mustache greeting her and taking a seat on the couch. “What’s the matter, my child,” Mr. Hida asked, noticing the partially stressed look on his daughter-in-law’s face.
“All of the calls that I’ve gotten this evening is the problem,” she complained, taking a seat beside the man. “I’ve never received so many calls at one time before! The earlier calls were from salesmen and solicitors, which is normal, but still bothersome. All evening they’ve been calling here, trying to sell stuff! I don’t know how much more polite I can remain if they keep calling here.”
“That call just now was from a solicitor?”
She shook her head. “No, that was Inoue-san (Mr. Inoue). He was looking for Miyako-chan, and if we’d seen her. She was supposed to have gotten home a couple of hours ago.”
“She could still be at school. She’s been a bit late every week, I’ve noticed. I seem to always bump into her when coming home from my dojo.”
“That could be it; he did say that she’s been working on a school project all week and that she was supposed to have stayed back, but the school is closed now. His wife tried phoning the school, but got no answer, and they’ve tried her mobile phone, but didn’t get a response.”
“That is rather odd.”
“Speaking of children who should be home, where is Iori? Didn’t he leave before you did?”
The old man chuckled as he gave her a smug smile. “I saw him associating with a pretty young lady when on my way home in front of the mart not too far from the dojo. He was deeply engrossed in conversation with her, so I kept on, not wanting to interfere or embarrass him.”
She didn’t like this response at all. She was getting this really anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach, and for some odd reason, was beginning to grow worrisome. “Father! It’s almost time for dinner! He should be here by now!”
“Have you not noticed how something seems to be bothering him and how he’s being a bit secretive?”
“Well, yes, but what does that have to do with Iori not being at home right now?”
“It is quite obvious that something is bothering him, and I sense that it’s a crush for a certain young lady,” he finally got out while rubbing his chin. “Maybe the girl I saw him talking with is the one he has feelings for.”
“A girl?” She shook her head. “I think I know my Iori much better than that. If he had a problem, he’d come to me with it, like he always has.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Mr. Hida wisely input. “A boy Iori’s age doesn’t go to his mother with these types of problems, usually. Boys normally go to their…fathers…” He stopped as a grief-stricken look appeared on his face, after realizing what he’d said. Mrs. Hida had an equivalent look. “You don’t suppose the reason that he could be upset is because of his missing his father, or that he didn’t get the opportunity to know him as well as he wanted to, do you?”
“Who knows,” Mrs. Hida sighed heavily, her eyes beginning to sting. “I really do miss him. Thinking back, Iori really didn’t know his father very well. He was so young when he died.”
“Do not worry, my child,” he gave her a small hug, “it’ll be all right, as long as you remember a lost loved one at his or her best.”
“That’s true, father, which is why we do have a shrine set up for him in respect of his memory, but Iori still can’t remember much because of how young he was! He probably feels that something is missing, and is looking for the answer to find out more about who he is, since he resembles him so much. He’s the splitting image of him, from the way he eats his food down to the way he laces his shoes!
“If he is having girl troubles, and really needs a male figure, why doesn’t he just talk to you about it?”
“I suppose that I am not the right person for him to talk to my dear.”
“It’s like I’m starting to lose him, father,” she complained. “He never used to keep things from me; I feel as if I’m useless to him right now. I know he’s always been a bit mature for his age, but he still acted like a typical child at times. I guess I just really miss those times. I wasn’t expecting him to grow up so fast.”
“Now you know one of the toughest parts about being a parent; watching your child grow up, and missing the times where they relied on you.”
She looked over towards her father-in-law, something nagging at the back of her mind. “I-I sometimes wonder how Iori would have turned out if his father was still alive. I wonder if he still would have turned out as mature as he had at such a young age if he were still alive. He acts more adult than some people my age when he was only eight years old!”
“Unfortunately, my child, we will never know…”
Mrs. Hida faced forward, staring at the living room television blankly, her mind wandering back to the painful day when her husband had passed away...
****
A four-year-old Iori was sitting contently on the kitchen floor, playing animatedly with a new Pokemon toy that his father had just recently given him. His young mother smiled at the sight.
“Are you having fun, Iori?” a younger Mrs. Hida asked.
Iori looked up from his spot and smiled playfully. “I sure am! When is papa coming home?”
“Pretty soon,” she answered, kneeling down beside the boy, “and we’re going to give him a big surprise!”
“The dinner that we made for him, mama?”
“Hai, hai!” she nodded with a smile.
“Yay! I can’t wait!!” Iori stood up and cheered.
“I’m sure your father will enjoy the surprise smorgasbord dinner we made for him to celebrate his being promoted earlier this week. He’s also going to be proud of his son for helping preparing some of his favorite appetizers and dishes: Onigiri with umeboshi filling for tomorrow, age-gyooza, kushiyaki, miso ramen topped with barbecued pork, negi, scallions, and much more! You also did a good job making his favorite dish, sushi rolls. You father really likes makizushi.”
“The sushi rolls I helped make don’t look too good,” Iori frowned.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure with some more practice you’ll make the best sushi rolls in the entire world!”
Iori clapped happily, as she hugged him, loving the embrace. No matter what, Iori always brought a smile to her face, especially when he showed to be happy. Iori had helped to prepare everything; well, more so handed her things while she cooked, but he did help with the sushi and helped with dessert.
“What about dessert?” the round-faced boy asked after getting out of his mother’s embrace.
“Now how can we forget about dessert,” the woman laughed while standing. “I’m sure he’ll enjoy the strawberry crème cake we made; perfect for the summer.”
“I got to taste the frosting!! It was good!”
“Okay now,” the woman started as she took off her apron, “since we’ve spent all day cooking all these foods for your father, let’s go set up the table. He should be coming home very soon.”
“Is ojiisama coming to dinner?”
“No, not to day.” She hung up her apron on the swinging kitchen door. “Your grandfather is going out to dinner with some old friends of his from the police force.”
“Oh.”
Both Iori and his mother set the table; Iori putting down the utensils, like the chopsticks on the chopstick stand, in the correct places, while his mother set out the actual food dishes. She found it a bit difficult to organize, since she’d prepared such an odd combination of foods that one would usually get at a restaurant. Iori was happy just to set up the basic “non-food” dishes on the table; it made him feel grown up.
After they’d finished setting the table, everything set for three, they decided to watch television while awaiting her husband. *Given the time, she knew that one of Iori’s favorite evening animated shows was on; Pocket Monsters.
The woman grew a bit bothered as she looked up at the wall clock, seeing that it was now 19:13 (7:13), and that her husband wasn’t home yet. She knew it wasn’t a late day for him, and that he was actually starting up his vacation. She stood from her comfortable place on the couch in front of the television.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, I’m just going to keep your father’s drink warm,” she told the boy distractedly. “He always preferred his sake warm, even during the summer.”
Iori could only shrug, and turned his attention back towards the television, curious as to what Satoshi (Ash), Kasumi (Misty), and Takeshi (Brock) were going to do next and how they were going to defeat Roketto Dan (Team Rocket).
Mrs. Hida went to do as she’d said. She took the still closed bottle, and small cup and set it aside someplace so that it’d remain warm. While she was attending to this task, she had the strangest, most unsettling feeling in the pits of her stomach. She just had this uneasy feeling that something was wrong dealing with her husband, but she just couldn’t figure out what it was exactly.
Her thoughts were soon broken by Iori’s laughter and his calling to her. “Mama, you’re going to miss all the funny parts!”
She shook her head and came back to reality. “I-I’ll be in there in a bit, Iori.”
Making her way back to the living room, she took her seat beside Iori, as she continued to watch the evening kiddy programming with the currently distracted, young oblivious Iori. More time passed. Mrs. Hida looked back up at the wall clock, and it was now almost 20:15 (8:15). ‘Where could he be? He should have gotten home almost two hours ago!’ She looked down and noticed Iori, who looked as if he was about to fall asleep in her lap. “Iori, it’s getting a bit late, so I want you to eat your dinner. You’re a growing boy, and you need to eat so that you can grow up nice and healthy, just like your father.”
“But, mama,” the boy began with a yawn, “I want to wait for papa.”
“Iori, please don’t argue with me,” the woman distantly ordered. “Just go eat your dinner. I don’t want you eating so late that you end up having nightmares.”
“But what about papa?”
“I promise you that the next time your father doesn’t have a late day, we’ll all celebrate along with Hida-ojiisan. Your father was planning on taking us all out tomorrow, which is why we prepared so much onigiri. He’s taking us to Disney Land. We’ll go there, then we can come back home for a special dinner prepared by both you and me.”
“You promise?”
“Have I ever lied to you?”
Iori thought for a moment and shook his head. “No, because papa always says that lying is wrong.”
“Good. Now, you go get into your pajamas, and we’ll just eat together. I’ll have to put your father’s food aside.”
Iori nodded and took off, while Mrs. Hida brought out a tray to take away her husband’s place at the table. She didn’t know why doing so, made her almost want to cry. ‘I have to get a hold of myself. Why am I feeling this way?’
After returning the tray to the kitchen, and regaining her composure, the phone rang. She rushed to the phone, her heart racing, hoping that it was her husband. “Moshi-moshi…Hida residence.”
The person to respond, was a male with a somewhat gruff voice, who sounded a bit unenthusiastic.
“Is something wrong?”
“Hello there, Hida-san,” the man on the other end replied slowly.
“Hello?”
“I-I don’t know how to tell you this, but…” he trailed off, as he tried to figure out a way to get the words out.
“Tell me what?” That feeling of dread was now returning to her; she had the feeling that something was most definitely wrong. “May I ask who’s speaking?”
“I’m sorry for being so rude, ma’am. I am Officer Fisher of the Kanto Kanku Keisatsu-kyoku (Kanto Regional Police Bureau).”
“Fisher?” She thought for a moment, trying to recall who this man was. “Oh, I remember you, Fisher-san! You were at the company gathering last summer. Hiroki-san speaks very highly of you. Are you and your family still enjoying your stay here in Japan since you’ve transferred here last year?”
“It’s very nice that Hida-sama has said nice things about me, and yes, my family and I like it here very much,” the man stated plainly. “It’s much different than England, but I’ve gotten used to it.”
“You and your wife should join Hiroki-san and me some time for a dinner out. It’s rare that we get to see you or Officer Takahoshi around.” She noticed that the other end had gone quiet. Was he calling from a mobile phone? “Oh, I’m sorry for going so off topic, Fisher-san. What is it that you wanted to tell me? I’m sure it’s a message from my husband.”
“Not exactly…”
Mrs. Hida opened up a bottle of juice, and began to pour its contents into a glass so that Iori could have it with his dinner. “What do you mean?”
The dark-haired man, sighed uneasily as he ran his hand through his head, trying to deliver the disheartening news. “I am, well, afraid to inform you that…your husband…a great man, that Hida-sama,” he rambled, “was…was…killed while trying to protect a very important Government Official today.”
Mrs. Hida couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. It couldn’t be true; there was no way possible of this being true. She stood there, her eyes wide and in shock, as the juice she was pouring spilled over. She didn’t even realize that she had done so, and was still holding the bottle, pouring, even though it was completely empty.
At that very moment, Iori had made his way back into kitchen in his Sandopan (Sandslash) pajamas that he’d received not too long ago from his grandfather. He’d always loved Sando (Sandshrew) and Sandopan. He never understood why those two particular Pokemon in general were favored. He just enjoyed the way they were, and how they could “dig” underground and such. Iori noticed the mess, and her blank, shocked look while holding the cordless phone limply in her hand.
“Mama, you wasted the juice all over the floor,” he told her, while pulling on her sleeve. Iori noticed the look his mother was wearing; it didn’t seem cheery or anything, like it would be usually. “Mama, what’s wrong?”
She didn’t say anything, as she held the phone in her hand. She felt as if she was in another world. “His partner should be over shortly to explain all of the details, Hida-san,” he replied sadly. “I really am sorry about this, Hida-san. I really am.”
“Okay…okay…goodbye,” she managed to get out before dropping the phone onto the floor.
“Mama?”
Mrs. Hida walked away from the mess, like some type of a zombie, and took a seat at the kitchen table. After a couple of seconds of eerie silence, the woman just broke down and cried. She just couldn’t bring herself to accept the fact that her husband was dead, and was even more distraught over the fact that she’d have to share this information with Iori.
As much as he tried, Iori still couldn’t get his mother’s attention, and was starting to grow a bit scared over the fact that she wasn’t responding to him. A short while later, a knock on the door was heard. His mother was still in a state of shock and borderline denial, and was pretty much wailing. Iori could only shrug, as he made his way towards the front door, asking who it was first, of course, as he’d always been taught to never open the door to strangers. Recognizing the voice of the male at the door, the boy stood on tip-toe to open it.
The man to stand before him was the partner of Iori’s father, as well as one of his best friends; Takahoshi Ohmori. Normally, his father’s other good friend, Oikawa Yukio, hanged around, but he wasn’t this time. As a matter of fact, it was rare to see the reclusive man at all lately. Iori didn’t really know him all that well, and neither did his mother, but his father spoke highly of him quite often. One could probably count on one hand how many times Oikawa had actually visited the Hida household within the previous year.
Iori let Mr. Takahoshi in. He still didn’t understand what was going on, why his mother had left such a mess, why she was crying, or why Mr. Takahoshi was in his home when his father wasn’t. Iori noticed that Mr. Takahoshi looked a bit down.
“Thank you, Iori-kun...” he thanked him quietly, as he stepped out of his shoes. “Where is your mother?”
He led him to the kitchen table, where the woman continued to cry. After seeing her in such a state, the only thing he could say, his voice mournful and quiet to her, was, “I guess you received the news already.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on!” Iori complained, wanting some answers. “Where is papa, Takahoshi-sama? Is he with Oikawa-san?”
Mrs. Hida rose from the spot she’d been in for so very long, and spoke in a gentle voice as she addressed Takahoshi, asking if he would like any tea, which he politely declined.
Iori could tell from her tone, that whatever was going on couldn’t have been good. She kneeled down and hugged Iori tightly, as some of her tears fell on top of the young boy’s head.
“Mama?” With a sob, she let go of him, and held him by the shoulders. Iori’s perplexed look was even more evident now. “Mama, what’s going on? Why are you crying?”
She took in a deep breath, and painfully explained to Iori that his father had been killed and how he’d never physically come home. Iori stood there in shock, extremely quiet. He didn’t understand much where death was concerned, but he did understand that it meant that he’d never see his father again.
Officer Takahoshi explained everything to them, as he tried his best not to cry himself. Takahoshi wasn’t there to witness the account, but he told the two of Mr. Hida’s heroism, and how he was trying to talk the radicals into putting down their weapons while he, himself, was unarmed; no gun nor vest. Iori could no longer take the negative tone of the depressing conversation and ran off screaming, “I HATE THEM!! THEY TOOK PAPA AWAY FROM US!!” and cried, slamming his bedroom door behind him.
Mrs. Hida was at a loss as to what to do, as she stared after her only son…
****
‘Oh Iori, I’m sorry you had to go through all of that, and I’m even more sorry that that promise was broken in that way. I’m sorry that you didn’t have the opportunity to know your father as well as you should have.
‘I shouldn’t feel guilty; it was just his time to go, which I’m sure Iori understands…but, we rarely ever talk about Hiroki-san, even though we visit his grave often and pray here at home. Maybe we should talk about him more.
‘I remember Iori’s reaction to the trial all too well. The man who killed Hiroki-san apologized, and how the gun going off was just an accident. They were only trying to scare the man my husband was trying to protect. Iori’s look was filled with pure hatred and malice; a look I’d never seen with him before. Everyone deserves to be forgiven, even if he did something horrible. If he’s truly sorry for what was done, then it shouldn’t be held against him, right?
‘Iori became extremely serious after that. He was no longer the playful, happy child I’d been so used of, since it was robbed of him. He took everything seriously, even games. If someone cheated, and he knew it, he’d lecture on how it’s wrong, and how cheating symbolized ‘evil’ and how they weren’t worthy of his time. He couldn’t get along with the other children when in his first year of elementary.
‘We had to move from out of that house, since everything there was painful and had to switch schools because of Iori. We had to get away from all of that negativity and sadness. I’m forever grateful that ojiisan started teaching him Kendo, and I’m also glad that he met Miyako-chan when he was seven after moving to this section of Odaiba. He started to lighten up and began to act like a child again, though not entirely, since he did still act serious, but didn’t go around criticizing the other children, either…’
“Yoo-hoo,” Mr. Hida called while waving a hand in front of his daughter-in-law’s face, “anybody home in there?”
She jumped. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was just thinking about some things.”
“What type of things? You were deep in thought for a good while.”
“I’ll discuss it later; I just wish Iori would hurry up and come home. I want to talk with him to see how he truly feels over the death of his father. He’s always seemed okay, but since he’s getting older, maybe it’s bothering him. I get this feeling that he never fully coped with his death…”
“I don’t feel that any person does,” the old man inputted wisely.
Before she could respond, the phone rang. She sighed in exasperation. “Hold on.” The ringing of the phone was starting to grate her nerves. She took in a deep breath to calm herself before answering, since it’d be rude to answer in any other fashion. “Moshi-moshi.” The person on the other end spoke, which surprised her, since it was rare for this woman to call. “Izumi-san, why are you calling? Are you okay?”
….
“Oh no,” apologized Mrs. Hida, “I’m just surprised that you called since it’s not often that you do. I apologize for my rude response. What’s the matter?”
….
“No, I haven’t seen Koushirou-kun. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, and whenever I do see him around here, he’s always with Miyako-chan. I guess my seeing him less and less has a lot to do with the fact that he’s in his last year of junior high, which is always the most difficult since they’re usually preparing for high school entrance exams.”
….
“No, Iori isn’t here yet, but when he comes home, I’ll be sure to ask if he’s seen your son.”
While Mrs. Hida was busy on the phone, Grandfather Hida, had heard a knock, and went to answer it. At the door, was a beautiful, young blonde-haired woman with big, bright blue eyes (usually), only this time they were red and puffy, like she’d been crying. He let her in, and led her to the couch.
‘What is going on around here,’ Mrs. Hida wondered while hanging up the phone. ‘First Miyako-chan hasn’t come home, and now Koushirou-kun is missing.’ She rejoined her father-in-law, to see a blonde-haired woman crying hysterically. “*Natsuko-san?! What’s the matter?”
“M-my Takeru is missing!”
“Natsuko-san, calm down.” She sat down beside her. “Everything will be okay.”
“I’ll go prepare some tea,” Mr. Hida offered as he took to the kitchen.
“Now, what do you mean Takeru-kun is missing?”
“The exact way that I said it,” the woman continued to sob. “Takeru is missing, and so is Hikari-chan! Her mother called over my place looking for her. I also just watched some of the news, and there was some commotion going on down at that new pizza place and that’s where Takeru and his friends were supposed to have been going!
“They found his hat down there! It looked exactly like Takeru’s! He picked it out when I took him to visit his grandfather in Paris when he was just eight! My father got it for him and he’s loved it ever since! He usually never takes it off, except for when he has to! He’d never just leave it behind unless something happened! I wouldn’t even be worrying right now, if I hadn’t have heard that brief report earlier about an abduction!”
“Wh-what?”
Right at that moment, Mr. Hida returned with a tray, and set it out on the table, pouring out a cup for the three of them. When done, he flipped on the television to Fuji TV. “Hmm, looks like a news special is on...” he noted, as he took his seat.
“Hello there everyone,” the TV anchor greeted. “This is Yamauchi Mori here coming to you live from Aqua City Odaiba for FNN with your evening news recaps, as well as more on the strange abductions from earlier. Now, as we reported earlier today, there were some strange happenings occurring right here in Odaiba. Eye witnesses claimed to have seen a tornado right here in Aqua City, which didn’t cause any damage, but apparently, it caused an actual abduction. I’m here right now with one of the eye witnesses.”
The young anchorwoman turned to the eye witness, who commented, “I saw it with my own eyes!”
“Hello sir. Would you please introduce yourself to our viewers?”
He nodded. “*Yoshihiro Isao dasu.”
“Yoshihiro-san, could you now please explain to our viewers what happened?”
The somewhat chubby man wearing the bright blue shirt and beige pants nodded. It was quite obvious that he wasn’t from the Kanto region based on his vernacular. His accent was more so westernized (he had a bit of a drawl), as if from Kansai region.
“I was sitting at that pizza place there,” he pointed to the outdoor parlour, “having myself some lunch, when this tornado just formed from out of no place! When I saw it, I took out my phone, and started recording it. I never knew Odaiba got strange storms like that. I had just got in from Shiba Park since I’ve always liked visiting Tokyo Tower, and was about to visit a relative, but was a bit hungry.
For the viewers at home, they began to show the footage that the man had recorded. Miss Yamauchi asked the man to explain it, as they had a monitor there for him to view.
“See, this is when I first started filming. The strangest thing about this tornado, other than the fact that it didn’t cause any damage, was that there were a couple of kids nearby. It looked like those two kids I saw got pulled right into it after that big flash of light, but it’s probably a bit difficult to make out since it is just a camera phone. I’m surprised no one else got footage of it.”
“This is indeed a strange occurrence, and this was found nearby at the scene.” She held up a dingy-white object. “It appears to be a hat, which we showed you viewers earlier. The owner is nowhere to be found, and fits the description of the boy who was wearing it before he mysteriously vanished.”
****
“That is Takeru’s hat!!” Ms. Takaishi trembled. “I told you that it was his! I knew I saw it right!!”
****
“Hold, this just in,” Miss Yamauchi started while listening to what was being told through her earpiece. “Apparently, there was trouble down at the…” she blinked in surprise, “Fuji TV station? This is quite surprising. We go there live now with Nishiyama Kenji-san for the report.”
The screen split, showing Mr. Nishiyama standing in front of the Fuji TV station, while Miss Yamauchi was shown at the pizza parlor.
“It seems that the same thing happened here earlier this afternoon, Yamauchi-san,” Mr. Nishiyama informed her. “Eye witnesses claim that a young boy fitting the description of Ishida Yamato, the lead member for the Teen-Age Wolves, was taken into a strange vortex. Ishida Hiroaki-san is the station manager here, and is also the father of this young, 16-year-old boy.”
****
“Yamato!! Not my Yamato!” the woman screamed hysterically. “That no good ex of mine, letting Yamato get abducted!!!”
“Hold on, Natsuko-san,” Mrs. Hida pleaded, trying to calm the woman, “maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was someone who strongly resembled your boys.”
Ms. Takaishi began to rock back and forth, her eyes growing even more puffy and red. “I’ve lost both of my boys,” she sobbed into a tissue, not really taking in anything her friend was saying.
****
The screen was no longer split, and just showed Mr. Nishiyama. “We have a couple of girls who witnessed this abduction, and called it in. Here we have 19-year-old Motomiya Jun-san and her friend, 20-year-old Kokiri Mai-san.” He turned to the two girls. “Could you please explain what happened in your own words?”
The camera panned out as he held his microphone to the two, allowing them to tell their story. “We were just on our way to the station to pick up our pre-ordered tickets and passes for tomorrow night’s show and to meet up with our friend, Inoue Momoe-chan,” the maroon, big-haired Jun explained. “We saw Yamato-kun coming from out of the station.”
The long-haired girl beside Jun nodded in agreement and added on, “We saw this lightning bolt strike the tower up there at the top of the Fuji TV station, and then it hit him, but the bolt looked like it was from far off. He looked like he was in terrible pain, too.”
“After that, we saw this weird looking vortex open up in the sky, and it pulled him right in!”
“Do you two girls know Yamato-kun well enough to know that it was actually him? Could there be a case of mistaken identity?”
“I’ve never met him directly, but Jun-chan seems to know him personally.”
“Not really,” Jun slightly blushed. “He was just a pretty face, who I strongly admired when I was younger, but I grew out of that. I guess we’re so-so friends now. I still talk to him sometimes.”
Also with the two girls, were two tall guys, who were waiting to be addressed by the reporter; it was both Akira and Yutaka. “Now, please, in your own words, could you describe what happened?”
“We weren’t around here when whatever happened, happened,” Akira explained. “We were just practicing for our upcoming gig Saturday night. It’s going to be one of our most important performances ever!”
“Too bad we couldn’t practice long since Ishida had to run.”
“And where might that have been?”
“C’mon man,” Yutaka exclaimed in disbelief, “isn’t that like an invasion of privacy or something?”
“We are just concerned, and wondering if it would help any as to where he may have been taken or ended up.”
“I guess we can tell a little,” Akira spoke up. “He was planning on meeting up with someone at Kasai Rinkai Kooen; well, that’s what he told us anyway.”
“Okay, thank you for that information. We will now have a word with the television station’s manager, Ishida Hiraoki-san.” The camera turned to show an incredibly distressed Mr. Ishida, who looked like he was ready to just break down. “Now, do you have any comments or words for anyone out there, Ishida-san?”
“I’m at a loss right now. I don’t understand what’s going on, and it doesn’t make any sense to me,” the middle-aged man sighed. “How can anyone get pulled into the sky? It just doesn’t make any sense!! I just hope someone can find my son. I have already contacted the police department and they are on the job.”
“Let us all hope that this goes well for you, Ishida-san.” Right at that moment, the man held his ear, receiving some new information. “This just in; the identities of the two children who were abducted this afternoon has been narrowed down and revealed. We go back to Yamauchi-san who has more information on that.”
“Thank you, Nishiyama-san. The identities of the two children have been identified based on the process of elimination. Apparently, they were both first-year students of Odaiba Junior High. The girl has been identified as being Yagami Hikari, age 13, and along with her was Takaishi Takeru, also 13. We are being told that the two were supposed to have met up with friends here, but the friends never showed up, and it appeared that the two were leaving.
“The hat, we have determined, belonged to him. The police are now contacting the parents of these two children to let them know what’s going on. Until we know what we are dealing with, we recommend that all school-bound children remain inside their homes. We don’t know why these three children have been taken or why they could’ve been taken, and would like to avoid any more vanishings if possible.”
She held her earpiece again, getting more information. “Hold on, I’m getting another update. According to this, ever since this broadcast, we are getting more and more phone calls about missing children and there was a strange occurrence over at the *Odaiba Shigaku no Chinou (‚¨‘äꎄŠw‚Ì’ m”\); the private institution known for their outstanding academic achievers. It’s another disappearance. We will have more details on that as soon as they come in.
“As for right now, the young persons we are sure of are as follows: Yagami Hikari, Takaishi Takeru, and Ishida Yamato. To add on to the list, we now have concerned parents calling in about a first year student of Odaiba High, Yagami Taichi; Takenouchi Sora, also a first year at Odaiba High; Motomiya Daisuke, a first year of Odaiba Junior High; Ichijouji Ken, also a first year of Odaiba Junior High; Izumi Koushirou, a third year student of Odaiba Junior High, who was last seen with second year student, Inoue Miyako and a third year, Meihui Chiu. If anyone has any information on these missing people, please contact your local precinct as soon as possible, or contact us, so that we can help assist the police in their investigation and search.”
The screen split once again showing both Mr. Nishiyama (at the Fuji TV station) and Miss Yamauchi in Aqua City Odaiba. “I hope that this broadcast will help them return home.” The man noticed the looks on the faces of those with him, Mr. Ishida and Jun’s the most notable. “Ishida-san, Motomiya-san; what is the matter?”
“Did Yamauchi-san just mention Takaishi Takeru?”
“What about Motomiya Daisuke!” Jun panicked.
“Yes, that’s what I heard, and we all just watched her broadcast.”
“Oh no, my brother!!”
“Oh my god…my son!!”
“Um, folks, it seems that Takaishi Takeru is also the son of Ishida-san, and this Motomiya Daisuke-kun is the younger brother of our eye witness, Motomiya-san.”
“I don’t want you guys to give up your search!” Mr. Ishida seriously instructed. “I want you to find both of my sons, and all the kids involved, even if it takes you all night and day! I want Takeru home with his mother, safe and sound!”
“And find my brother!” Jun ordered. “Sure I said some mean things to him that I didn’t really mean and the same probably goes for him, but I do love him very much!” The girl began to cry, as she grabbed Mr. Nishiyama’s microphone, and stepping close to the camera. “Daisuke, if you’re listening to this, please be okay and don’t worry! Wherever you are, we will find you!”
“There you have it folks; two people who are close with the victims,” Miss Yamauchi announced from her end. “So, if you can, please help. Are these indeed strange alien abductions, or are they just very clever kidnappings? Only time will tell. We now go to Morimoto Reika-san live with the weather and we will be back with any further information dealing with the strange disappearances of…hold on, I’m getting a name on the school abduction. The name of this student is Kido Jou, a 17 year old in his 11th year and---”
Mrs. Hida turned the television off. This was growing rather depressing. Ms. Takaishi stood up. “I’m going out right now!”
“But Natsuko-san, you can’t go out in the state of mind that you’re in.”
“I don’t give a damn!!” she snapped, her hair flying as she shook her head. “Both of my sons are missing! I don’t care about anything else right now! I’m going out to look for them!”
“It’ll probably be best if we…” Mrs. Hida stopped shortly, as something came to her mind. All of the children who were adducted were Chosen Children; Iori hadn’t come home yet, and the report had gone on for at least twenty minutes. She hoped that the connection she had been sub-consciously making turned out to mean nothing. “I really wish Iori would hurry home.”
“It is quite strange how he hasn’t returned yet, unless that girl has his full undivided attention, and the boy just lost track of the time.”
“Ojiisan, could you describe the girl you saw Iori with? Maybe I know her mother or father.” Mrs. Hida nodded as the man described the girl to her, knowing at once who it was. “That sounds like Eiji-chan.”
*“Eiji? What kind of a name is that for a girl? It could be written to mean ‘second son’.”
Mrs. Hida shrugged. “I know it’s an odd name, but I don’t think it’s spelled in Kanji, father, unless they used the reading meaning ‘supreme ruler’, but I couldn’t see that, since the name is still pretty masculine. It’s probably written in katakana.”
“I guess, but it’s still odd.”
“I met her family at a school meeting a while back. I’m a pretty good friend of her mother’s. We go marketing together. I’ll go give her a call to see if Iori is over there.”
Mrs. Hida made her way to the phone to call Eiji’s mother, while Ms. Takaishi was pacing around impatiently, trying to figure out what she should do. While on the phone, Mrs. Hida noticed how frantic and anxious the middle-aged woman sounded. When asked if Eiji was around, the woman explained while sobbing that she had sent her out to pick up groceries and how she should have been home over an hour ago. She asked if she’d seen her, which she explained that she hadn’t, and that she was with her son. She felt a ping of worry, and held her stomach. Eiji’s mother wasn’t helping the situation at all.
“I’m going out to look for them! Something’s not right. I don’t usually get too worried if they’re late, but this time I can’t help it, especially with the strange abductions.” There was some talking on the other end. “Oh, you want to come along too?...Alright! We’ll be over there soon. See you later.” After putting down the receiver, the woman burst into tears.
“What’s the matter,” Grandfather Hida asked in alarm.
“Eiji-chan wasn’t home, and she should’ve been home a long while ago! Something has happened to her, and if something has happened to her, then something has to have happened to Iori! I’m going out to search for them!”
“Wait, for all we know, the two could be on a date.”
“Father, you know Iori better than that! He’s not the inconsiderate type! He would let us know if he’d changed his mind about coming home! He always has!” She turned to her blonde companion. “Natsuko-san, let’s go.”
She stopped pacing in place and nodded. “Right!”
“I will remain here, just in case someone returns.”
“Good idea, father. Thank you.”
The two women were about to go, when they heard a knock on the front door. After answering, there stood a girl who was about 19 years of age, with long brown hair and thin-rimmed glasses, breathing hard as if she’d just run a marathon.
“Momoe-chan,” the two responded.
“*Konban wa Hida-san, Takaishi-san. Sumimasen, demo…”
Grandfather Hida walked up to the door, holding a glass of water. “Calm down child. Here, drink this.”
The girl graciously took the water, and gulped it down. “Thank you. I’m sorry for my rudeness. I ran all the way up here from the Ai Mart.”
“Momoe-chan, what’s wrong?” Mrs. Hida asked in surprise.
“It’s my mother. She’s going crazy! Once she saw that news report and how it seems like only Chosen Children are missing, she grew all worried and called the police! She tried Miyako’s mobile phone too and got no answer. It said that she’s out of the calling area. She thinks she’s been abducted too.
“My parents have already left for *Kasumigaseki to get to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, while *Mantarou-niichan watches the mart. *Chizuru and I are going to go out and look around for her.”
Before Momoe could continue, her 16-year-old, short-haired sister ran up behind her. She too was out of breath from running up the flight of stairs. Both were too anxious to wait on the elevator. “Well, have they seen him?” asked the girl anxiously.
“I didn’t get the chance to ask yet.” She turned back to the three adults. “Have you guys seen Iori-kun? Maybe he has an idea where Miyako could be.”
Mrs. Hida shook her head sadly, as she explained how they were on their way out to look for Iori.
“Could Chizuru and I come along with you?”
“Of course.”
“Let’s just go find my boys,” Ms. Takaishi choked out between sobs.
With that, they all left to fetch Eiji’s mother, and to commence their search…
Author’s Notes
Note 1: In Japan, Pokemon airs on Thursday evenings at 7:00 on TV Tokyo, and to my knowledge, still airs in this slot to this day. The show also doesn’t air everyday, like stuff is here. It’s a weekly show. It does come on a few times during the week; about three for their regular showing, and the other times are different variations of the show. Pokemon also originally started in April of 1997. For the flashback, it’s taking place in the summer of 1997, if you did your math. Of course, I have no idea at what portion of the year Iori’s father was killed, so I just decided to use summer. I also chose summer since that’s a good while before the seizure episode aired in Japan and I wanted Iori to be a Pokemon fan. lol After the seizure episode, Pokemon was yanked off the air in Japan for a few months.***
Note 2: This is Takeru and Yamato’s mother’s original name; Takaishi Natsuko.
***
Note 3: Yes, the “dasu” in the sentence, “Yoshihiro Isao dasu” was intentional. A few sentences down, it is pointed out that this guy seemed to have an accent, like someone would from the “Kansai” region due to his dialect (Kansai-ben) and for that, “desu” is more so pronounced “dasu”. The Kansai region includes places such as Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, etc. Those from there tend to drag their words, or speak with a “drawl”, I guess one could say.
Those from the Kanto region (which includes special wards like Odaiba), don’t, since they tend to speak in Tokyo-ben. For this very reason, that’s why for some anime series, when dubbed over, a character from one of the places mentioned above of the Kansai region, tends to have a country-sounding accent; that’s pretty much the equivalent of those who speak Kansai-ben in Japan.
***
Note 4: Odaiba Shigaku no Chinou (‚¨‘äꎄŠw‚Ì’ m”\) pretty much means, the Odaiba Private School of Intelligence, if I did that right. My mind was blank on names. ^^
***
Note 5: Yes, all; the name “Eiji” is a masculine name, which was pointed out by Iori a couple of chapters back. The kanji readings for it can mean “second son” or “supreme ruler”. I know you’re wondering why I chose such a name for her. To be honest, I have no idea, I just wanted a boyish name for her, although, I probably could’ve just used a unisex name for her, like Aki, Hikaru, Jun, Hiromi, etc., but Eiji seems more interesting sounding. Anywho, if the name is written in Katakana, then it usually has no meaning.
***
Note 6: That simply translates to, “Good evening Mrs. Hida, Ms. Takaishi, I am sorry, but…”
***
Note 7: Mantarou, Momoe, and Chizuru are the real names of Miyako’s older siblings. Mantarou is the oldest, and is the one who was in college during 02. Momoe was in high school during 02, and best friends with Jun (Daisuke’s sister). She has the long hair. Chizuru has the short hair, and is in the same year as Taichi, Sora, and Yamato. She’s also in Yamato’s class.
***
Note 8: Kasumigaseki (‰à‚ªŠÖ) is a district of Tokyo of the Chiyoda Ward. It’s inland. You can reach there (I guess from Odaiba) by car or train.