Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Crow: Land of the Rising Sun ❯ Chapter 02 ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Crow: Land of the Rising Sun
A Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, The Crow Fanfiction
by SoftRogue
whiteb100@hotmail.com

Ranma is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi
Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi
The Crow is the creation of James O'Barr
I do not own them, so please don't sue me

Chapter 2a

+++++++++++++++++++++
We got the bubbleheaded bleach-blonde, comes on at five.
She can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye.
It's interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry.
-'Dirty Laundry' by Don Henley
+++++++++++++++++++++

"In the early morning hours, tragedy struck the
business district here in Tokyo. Nabiki Tendo,
the Director of Acquisitions at Genom Corporation,
was apparently thrown out of her 42nd floor office
window after being brutally beaten. Tendo-san,
age 27, was an up and coming star in the business
word; having made several multi-billion yen
business deals in the past several years that,
according to analysts, helped Genom Corporation
to flourish while other Biotech companies have
faltered.

"A Genom spokesman said, in an earlier comment
this morning, that the loss of Tendo-san is a
great blow to the hearts and minds of all the
employees of Genom and that she would be sorely
missed. The spokesman also said that Genom will
be cooperating fully with the police in the
investigation.

"As of this time, the police have not released
any information on their investigation, only
saying that they are ruling it a homicide.

"Live from in front of Genom Tower,
this is Minako Aino reporting."

********************

"And...we're clear." the camera-man said, removing the bulky camera off of his shoulder, being careful of the plastic bag covering it to protect it from the light drizzle.

"Thanks, Jiro-chan." Minako said, smiling brightly from underneath her umbrella as she pocketed her wireless microphone. "Go ahead and get are gear together. I thought I saw a familiar face over there."

"Slave driver." Jiro replied, rolling his eyes in fake exaggeration before beginning to collect his equipment.

Walking over to the cornered off crime scene, the blonde investigative reported stopped at the police line and waved at a small group of uniformed and plain-clothed cops; catching the eye of one in particular who returned the greeting before he headed towards her. While waiting, Minako eyed the scene with a critical eye. The body had already been removed and the splattered blood was slowly being washed by the rain, leaving only small broken shards of glass.

"My Sailor Sense it twinkling." she muttered under her breath in English as the cop walked underneath the police 'do-not-cross' tape and smiled warmly.

"Why, hello there, Mina-chan."

"Hiya, Kei-kun." she replied brightly, giving him a toothy smile.

"Say, how about a date tonight?" Keiichi Jinnia said with a twinkle of hope in his eyes.

"Humm...why don't we talk about it while you walk me back to the news van."

As the two began to walk, Minako reflected on her relationship with Inspector Keiichi Jinnia. They've dated off and on for the past several years now, and had always parted as friends. In their professional lives, however, they had a much different relationship. The Inspector would periodically pass confidential information to her, but only if Minako would keep his name out of the news. She went one step further, however, by taking that information and verifying it by other sources. By doing that, she had a 'leg up' on the story and she had begun to make a name for herself in the news industry. Well, that combined with the 'special' reports she did.

Walking close together Keiichi said in a low voice, "Tendo-san was a naughty girl. A very naughty girl from what we can tell."

"What do you mean?"

"The boys down town a thick file with her name on it. Links to organized crime, bribes, blackmail, trafficking of contraband, and so on. But she was very good at covering her tracks; there's absolute nothing they have that they could've proved. There's been a team going through her office practically from word 'go' looking for anything that could link Tendo-san to any criminal activity, but so far it's a bust. The only thing that we've got so far is a .357 Magnum."

"She had a gun?" Minako asked in surprise, as gun possession by a private citizen was unheard of in Japan and the law against such was rigorously enforced.

"Yep. Not that it did her any good, though. She fired off 12 rounds at the perp, but the guy apparently did his homework and was wearing a bullet proof vest."

"Really." Minako mused, "So it was probably a hit. Tendo-san double-crossed someone and they had her killed."

"That's what were going with, but..." slipping a hand into his jacket, Keiichi pulled out something. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, he flashed what was in his hand at her; a small video diskette. "We got this from the Genom security room; video only, no audio. The guy who killed her is weird, freaky weird. And the whole thing doesn't feel like an execution killing; it seems more...personal; but we've got nothing else to go on so..."

"You know who the killer is?" Minako asked with curiosity.

"No. The office's already been dusted for 'prints and they've got some partials and by now the lab should've gotten a copy of this. But my gut's telling me we aren't going to find this guy in any database."

Arriving at the news van Keiichi turned to face Minako and grabbed her hands, palming her the diskette in the process. "So about that date?"

"Not tonight, sorry." the blonde said, true regret in her voice as she let go of his hands and pocketed the diskette.

"Please?" Keiichi mock pleaded, giving her the puppy dog treatment.

"Sorry. I've got a lead that Sailor V is going to make an appearance tonight."

"Oh, all right." the Inspector pouted. Seeing Minako shrug in apology, he turned to walk away, but paused and looked back at her. "Oh, by the way. I've always meant to ask you, but I've always forgotten to bring it up. What ever happened to he rest of them?"

"The rest of who?" Minako asked perplexed.

"The rest of the Sailor Senshi. I figured that you might know, seeing you've done so many stories and exposés on Sailor V. There used to be, what, seven of them? Then all of them but Sailor V seem to just disappear."

Doing the best to hide her sudden sadness, Minako answered, "Ten. There were a total of ten Senshi at one time. But they either went back to wherever they came from or...they just lost interest in stopping the bad guys; except for Sailor V, of course." she finished with a brilliant smile.

"Ah. Well, I'd better get going. I'll give you a call in a day or so for that date, alright?"

"No promises, Kei-chan." Minako replied with a wink as she opened the side door of the van, closed her umbrella, and climbed inside.

"You mean you're not selling yourself for information?" a female voice from inside the confines of the van said with a hint of mirth as Minako closed the door behind her.

"You know Minako doesn't have the attention span to think like that, Umi." Jiro answered with a humorous smile.

Looking at her 'Trekkie' (that is to say, her broadcast technician, or techie; but Minako always had way with turning phrases) the blonde said, "Well, if that's the way you're going to be I guess I won't show you this."

Looking at the diskette Minako removed from her pocket Umi said, "Oh please Great One, I beg for your forgiveness."

"Well, I don't know..." Minako hemmed as she dangled the diskette in front of Umi, who quickly snatched it out of her hands.

"This'll take just a moment." Umi said as she turned on her equipment and loaded the video diskette.

The three of them; Minako, Jiro and Umi; had worked together as a team for little over two years now, and had an excellent working relationship throughout that entire time. Umi and Jiro would often tease Minako about how she went through men like...well, they'd often say they couldn't think of anything that happened faster; and Minako would take there good natured ribbing in stride. However Jiro and Umi both knew that there boss would never compromise her integrity and she had in the past rudely turned down offers of information in exchange for 'intimate' favors.

As Umi muttered under her breath while playing with her equipment and Jiro watched her with interest, Minako took a moment to reflect how she had gotten to where she was today. She was fortunate, she felt, in that she had practically fallen in to a career that she enjoyed. She had never been bashful about her appearance and her approach at fact finding was, while some would call it unusual, worked extremely well. By coming off as sexy and dim (not to say that Minako was a genius mind you, she knew her limitations, but she was a lot smarter than most people would give her credit for) people would tell her things that they figured she either wouldn't understand or would go in one ear and right out the other. Yes, Minako defiantly felt lucky to have gotten a job that she loved, especially after her original dreams had ended before they began.

"Alright, got it." Umi finally said in satisfaction. "I've got three camera angles here with about four hours of footage from each. The first one is we're going to see is looking towards the back of the office."

The three watched the video screen intently. At first, all they saw was an empty office. Umi turned a knob on her equipment and the video fast forwarded until Nabiki Tendo entered the office. Then, at normal speed, they watched as she paused briefly at the window before moving over to her desk. The video fast forwarded until a black shape streaked across the screen.

"What was that?" Minako asked.

"Hold on." Umi said as she rewound the tape to before hitting the play button again.

"It looks like a bird." Jiro said seeing the shape fly across the room and land on the computer monitor.

"It's a crow." Umi said with conviction, then looked up behind her. "I did a documentary on them for my senior year final back in collage. After editing all that footage I had, I swore I would lose it if I had to see another one of those damn things again."

They quieted down as they watched as a figure dressed all in black walk forward from the shadows. They couldn't see his face, but they could definitely see Nabiki's reaction. At first she was surprised, followed by angry. She then looked interested as the figure slowly towards the desk, to be replaced a brief look of shock. The look she had on her face as she drew a pistol from the desk drawer and fired it pointblank sent shivers down Minako's spine.

"Man, she's a cold one." Jiro remarked as they watched what happened next.

They saw the figure she had just shot stand back up...and the horror on Nabiki's face. She shot at him repeatedly to no effect. The figure jumped up and over the desk, slammed her against the wall and grabbed Nabiki and held her for a moment. The figure then threw her over the desk and across the room. Pausing to throw the desk out of the way, the figure stalked over to Nabiki and picked her up by the neck. After apparently pausing to whisper something to her, the figure then proceeded to repeatedly hit her over and over.

Minako felt herself emotionally detach herself from what she was watching. The figure spent the next ten minutes savagely beating Nabiki. Finally, the figure finished the physical abuse and then almost casually tossed her through the window. As the figure stood at the ledge, the crow floated down and landed on his shoulder. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, the figure turned and headed towards the front of the office. The figure stopped in front of the camera, paused, then looked directly into the lens. Minako could clearly see his painted face as he grinned brazenly and flashed a 'V' sign before walking out of view.

"Cocky bastard, ain't he?" Jiro commented.

"Do me a couple of favors, Umi." Minako said deep in thought as she reached out and rewound the tape and paused it on the man's face, "Run me off a hard copy of this and make me a copy of the tape. Also, analyze the rest of the angles to see if you can spot how he got into the office."

"Sure thing, boss. You got a hunch?" Umi asked.

"Something like that." Minako said slowly as she put a hand into her pocket and fingered her henshin wand.

********************
Author's Notes:
Sorry this one's so short, but I've been sitting on
this for a while and I wanted to get it out and hopefully
get some good feedback and C&C for some future ideas.
06/13/03