Lost & Found - Episode 1 Part 2
Title : Lost & Found
Chapter Title : Falling to Their Places
Setting : Hidarime Tantei EYE - Post Special Drama
Summary : What if at the end, Ainosuke's resolve crumbles, leaving him vulnerable in front of his older brother. What will Ainosuke do? And how will Yumeto react to the drastic decision his baby brother had come onto?
Rating : K+
That was a bad idea. He knew it. That was a very, very bad idea. After all, who in the straight mind would allow their 8 year old daughter to meet a stranger? Especially one that claimed to know her but never been mentioned by the said daughter.
With a heavy sigh, he turned away from the closed door and traced the way back to his own apartment.
He was too impulsive for his own good, now he realized that. It was like this the last time too, investigating his brother’s ‘death’ just because he had a feeling that it was not an accident. And he got more than he bargained for.
Not that he complained about it.
For him, knowing that his brother was alive was good enough. He didn’t know - and might never do - why his brother had kept him alive that day in the police station. However, it gave him hope, even if just a small one, that maybe somewhere, deep in his heart, the brother that he knew was still alive.
“But why won’t you meet me?” he whispered softly.
His musing was broken by a sound of a carriage being wheeled away quickly. He looked around in alarm as the sound grew louder. He frowned when all he could find was a black car parked a little bit farther away in front of him. Cautiously, he moved closer to the car.
Then, in a blurry of motion, a baby carriage was pushed inside a masked man and the door of the car that had been open was closed forcefully. The next second, a panicked cry of “Igumi!” pierced his ear.
With a sense of dread in his chest, he ran closer to the car just as the driver stepped on the gas. From the same direction the masked man was from, a woman in her late twenties came running, yelling her child’s name again and again. He knew what was going on in that instant.
He quickly turned around and, along with the distressed mother, ran after the car. It was hopeless however, as the car’s speed was way faster than any of them could run. He stopped trying when the woman beside him fell down and moved to helped her instead.
“Igumi! They have my child! Help me! Please, help me!”
The woman gripped the sleeve of his jacket desperately, continued to beg him for help. He bit his lip and looked around, just as desperate, to find someone, anyone, who could help them. When he found no one, he turned back to the hysterical woman and slowly guided her to the side of the road. Once they were no longer sitting on the middle of the road, he put his hands on her shoulder.
“Calm down, please, ma’am, I need you to calm down.”
He managed to say it both gently but still had a hint of urgency in it. The woman calmed down a little, though still sobbing furiously, staring at him with red eyes.
“Okay, that’s it. Do you have your handphone with you?”
The woman nodded mutely. After screaming her voice raw for her child, it seemed that she had difficulties to use it now.
“Good. Now, I need you to call your husband about this, and I’ll call the police for you, is that okay?”
He watched in sympathy as she rumaged her bag for her cellphone and, after a few seconds, started to retell what had happened a few minutes ago in between her sobs.
Sighing lightly, he reached for his own cell phone. Despite the situation, he had to stare at it for a while, not knowing why Yoshida-san even bother to buy him one and instructed him to have it with him all the time, but grateful for it. He flipped the phone open and pressed 110.
“I am calling to report a kidnapping case.”
xxx
Kato Takashi was not in a very good mood. The last three months of his life was hell, almost literally. Thanks to a certain school nurse who pestered him almost every day.
At first it was not that bad, really. At least he could always pull Ohuchi-san in front of him and left him to deal with the school nurse. But then, two months ago, Ohuchi-san was transferred to a different police jurisdiction and, alas, all those whinings and pesterings were all his to endure.
He laid his head onto the table, staring off into space as he let his mind wondered again. Then, just like how moments like this ended, he found himself staring at a certain sketch book that lying at the side of his desk, buried among the messy documents, given by Ohuchi along with a simple request to find its owner.
A sigh escaped his lips before he pulled the sketch book from under the pile. He adjusted his sitting and flipped the book open.
He had seen the drawings hundreds of time, but yet he was never ceased to be amazed at how realistic these pencil drawn pictures looked. That boy really did have a talent. It was too bad that he was caught up in thi-
A sound of telephone ringing reached his ears, abruptly ended his line of thought. His head jerked upwards and he looked around, only to see that he was the only one in the room who wasn’t doing any work and that some of his colleagues were now looking at him with a clear message.
Seriously?
He sighed and stood up, placing the sketch book on his table before walking to the ringing telephone.
“Tokyo Police Station.”
“I am calling to report a kidnapping case.”
His breath hitched at the familiar voice that he last heard three months ago. He quickly grabbed a pen that was on the table and struggled to open his notepad.
“Okay, can I have the location, who the victim is and the time of the incident?”
“We are now at the front of Seifu park. The… uhm…”
There was a muted sound of the caller asking someone a question and he waited anxiously.
“The victim’s name is Hirai Igumi, one year old. The time is… around five minutes ago, so six-fifteen.”
He wrote all the details, ripped the page off and waved it to his colleagues who were now watching him intently. One person approached him and took the paper from him, the others started to move along.
“We are now in our way to your location so please do not go anywhere until our officers arrive there.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Usually, this was where he put the phone back and hurried to catch up with the others and drive to the crime scene. But this time, there was something he needed to make sure first.
“Wait!”
He stopped the person from the other line from hanging up. His current partner poked his head into the room and motioned to him to go quickly. He nodded and gestured to the phone, which seemed to be enough as the other disappeared again behind the door.
“Yes?”
The voice answered confusedly and he took a deep breath as an image of a certain boy turning around to face him and Ohuchi-san with a confused expression flashed in his mind.
“Are you Tanaka Ainosuke-kun?”
He could hear that person’s breath hitched and all went silent.
Bingo.
“Ainosuke-kun, do you remember me?”
He was never felt more thankful than right now for the boy’s tendency to freeze when something unexpected happen as he had learned from the few times he had to deliver bad news to him. The others would have simply hanged up the phone were they in the boy’s shoes.
“Kato… san…?”
He could have laughed out loud if the situation was not so serious. Never had he been more thankful for the boy’s childish honestly either. Seriously, this boy… Had he not notice that answering his question would have erased any chance for him to deny the previous statement?
Not that he was going to complain. And not that he could help the soft smile that was now grazing his face.
“It’s been a while. How are you doing?”
More pause.
“You…”
He quirked an eyebrow at the hesitant voice.
“I’m what?”
“You are not going to ask where have I been?”
He sighed heavily and raised his hand to rub his temple tiredly.
“Honestly? I am very tempted. But at least now I know that you are fine. You are fine, aren’t you?”
Kato could just imagine Ainosuke smiling at his question. The small chuckle that he heard just confirmed his suspicion. Yes, he was sure now that the boy was fine.
“I am.”
“Good.” He hesitated, mind working over what to do, now that he had actually found Ainosuke. Well, not really found, but, the closest to it than he ever been for the past three months. “He really keeps his promise.”
“Promise?”
His brow furrowed when he heard the confusion once again laced the boy’s voice.
“Your… ‘kidnapper’ left the police a message that day when he took you.”
(flashback)
Kato anxiously marched around the police station. He swore he had never felt this worried ever since he got his first case as a police officer. The school nurse beside him didn’t make things easier either, kept muttering how she should have kept a better eye on her student.
“Sayama-sensei I would really appreciate it if you could please! Stop! Mumbling!”
The school nurse turned to him sharply and he almost backed away at the fury he saw in her eyes.
“How can you expect me to be silent? My student was out there! Alone! And I have no idea how he is doing! He could be lying out there somewhere dying for all I know!”
To his horror tears started to stream down her cheeks. Still, she spoke to him with fire in her eyes.
“And you know what worse, Kato-san? You asked me to keep quiet! It was the same as if you told me not to worry! Don’t you know that there would be no one in this world that would be worried for him if I stop?!”
He felt his anger vanished into thin air at the reminder that Ainosuke had lost every single member of his family and was now left on his own.
“Not true.”
He watched as the nurse looked at him questioningly.
“He still got me and Ohuchi-san besides you.”
Sayama offered him a shaky smile and he returned the gesture, offering and receiving any sort of comfort he could. He was about to say something when someone else beat him to it.
“Kato-san!”
He turned to see one of his colleagues ran to him at full speed before stopping abruptly in front of him.
“You have to see this!”
He shared a look with the school nurse before turning and ran after his colleague. He was led to the investigation room where they kept the laptops and for a moment his eyes wandered around, until he found the writing on the whiteboard and his eyes widened at the sight. There, written in black on white, was a message from the terrorist.
‘This boy will be in my care for a while. Do not worry, for I will not harm him. I will return him to you when I see fit.’
“What does this mean, Kato-san?”
He looked at his side where Sayama was currently staring at the message in open horror. He gulped and answered shakily, his own eyes were filled with anxiety.
“This means… that Ainosuke-kun is currently being held captive by the terrorist. And we have absolutely no lead to who and where this terrorist is.”
(end of flashback)
Both he and Ainosuke were silent when he finished his tale. Then, to his horror, a sob-like sound was heard from the other side of the phone.
“Ainosuke-kun? Hey, Ainosuke-kun, are you alri-”
His sentence was cut abruptly when the phone connection broke. He stood there dumbly, staring absently at the phone he was clutching in his left hand.
Had he said something wrong? Something that offended him, maybe?
No, he was sure he had not. On the contrary, hadn’t he just confessed that he actually cared about the boy?
Letting out a deep frustrated sigh, he put the phone down and ran out of the room, determined to get to the crime scene as soon as he could and get things straight with a certain 15 year old boy.
xxx
“I see you are here again, Yoshida.”
Yumeto shifted his attention to the source of the interruption who had came uninvited into his office. He raised an eyebrow at her haughty expression.
“Any particular reason as to why you decided to grace us with your presence this morning, Noriko?”
The said woman smiled mysteriously, ignoring the sarcasm dripping from her leader’s voice and seated herself in the unoccupied chair next to the ex-bomber. She casually reached for one of the documents on Yumeto’s desk and started to flip through it.
“I just want to report that your instruction has been carried out. We got the baby.”
His eyebrow went even higher.
“And you deemed it important enough for you to tell me that face to face?”
The gunslinger threw the document back to the desk and leaned back to her chair.
“Maybe not. But those people in the team came back to me with a very interesting report.”
“Interesting report?”
She nodded, smiling slightly, and Yumeto couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to make her in such a good mood. His eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion.
“He said that when they were wheeling the baby into the car, there was a boy walking nearby.”
A sense of dread filled Yumeto’s heart as the word boy reached his ears. It couldn’t be.
“They said it was a boy around fifteen with a rather long dark brown hair and eyes. He was thin and a little short. Ah! And one of them added that he was cute.”
Yumeto’s heart was beating so hard that he almost could hear it thumping in his chest. Still, he forced his face to look bored and impassive.
“And? I still don’t see how this is so important.”
Noriko frowned at the crime planner’s indifference about this matter and Yumeto was more than glad to see this. Anything to get her attention off his brother.
She was about to answer him when Yoshida spoke.
“Well, I guess this is time for me to leave. You can continue your discussion. I’ll just go back to my apartment. Noriko-san. Yumeto-san.”
Yumeto looked at the older man and saw him giving him a significant look. To him, the message was clear.
I’ll check on your brother.
Yumeto nodded mutely, gratitude shining in his eyes. He knew that the older got his message as he smiled a little and, with a nod of head, stepped out of the room.
“That boy is your little brother, isn’t he?”
He slowly turned his attention back to the frowning woman in front of him.
“I told you we should have killed him that day. Now he’s out there somewhere, free to shout to anyone about your identity.”
“There is no evidence that it was indeed him. Many boys could fit in to that description. And I told you I know what I’m doing. Him being alive is a crucial point to my plan and for that, I can’t afford to get him killed. You just have to take my word for it. This discussion is over.”
Yumeto sighed in relief mentally when he saw that she relented, although unhappy. He then pulled his stance to be what is expected from a genius crime planner: bored expression on his face, a small smirk playing on his lips, eyes shining with confidence.
“Speaking of my plan, how is your meeting with that woman going?”
Chapter Title : Falling to Their Places
Setting : Hidarime Tantei EYE - Post Special Drama
Summary : What if at the end, Ainosuke's resolve crumbles, leaving him vulnerable in front of his older brother. What will Ainosuke do? And how will Yumeto react to the drastic decision his baby brother had come onto?
Rating : K+
That was a bad idea. He knew it. That was a very, very bad idea. After all, who in the straight mind would allow their 8 year old daughter to meet a stranger? Especially one that claimed to know her but never been mentioned by the said daughter.
With a heavy sigh, he turned away from the closed door and traced the way back to his own apartment.
He was too impulsive for his own good, now he realized that. It was like this the last time too, investigating his brother’s ‘death’ just because he had a feeling that it was not an accident. And he got more than he bargained for.
Not that he complained about it.
For him, knowing that his brother was alive was good enough. He didn’t know - and might never do - why his brother had kept him alive that day in the police station. However, it gave him hope, even if just a small one, that maybe somewhere, deep in his heart, the brother that he knew was still alive.
“But why won’t you meet me?” he whispered softly.
His musing was broken by a sound of a carriage being wheeled away quickly. He looked around in alarm as the sound grew louder. He frowned when all he could find was a black car parked a little bit farther away in front of him. Cautiously, he moved closer to the car.
Then, in a blurry of motion, a baby carriage was pushed inside a masked man and the door of the car that had been open was closed forcefully. The next second, a panicked cry of “Igumi!” pierced his ear.
With a sense of dread in his chest, he ran closer to the car just as the driver stepped on the gas. From the same direction the masked man was from, a woman in her late twenties came running, yelling her child’s name again and again. He knew what was going on in that instant.
He quickly turned around and, along with the distressed mother, ran after the car. It was hopeless however, as the car’s speed was way faster than any of them could run. He stopped trying when the woman beside him fell down and moved to helped her instead.
“Igumi! They have my child! Help me! Please, help me!”
The woman gripped the sleeve of his jacket desperately, continued to beg him for help. He bit his lip and looked around, just as desperate, to find someone, anyone, who could help them. When he found no one, he turned back to the hysterical woman and slowly guided her to the side of the road. Once they were no longer sitting on the middle of the road, he put his hands on her shoulder.
“Calm down, please, ma’am, I need you to calm down.”
He managed to say it both gently but still had a hint of urgency in it. The woman calmed down a little, though still sobbing furiously, staring at him with red eyes.
“Okay, that’s it. Do you have your handphone with you?”
The woman nodded mutely. After screaming her voice raw for her child, it seemed that she had difficulties to use it now.
“Good. Now, I need you to call your husband about this, and I’ll call the police for you, is that okay?”
He watched in sympathy as she rumaged her bag for her cellphone and, after a few seconds, started to retell what had happened a few minutes ago in between her sobs.
Sighing lightly, he reached for his own cell phone. Despite the situation, he had to stare at it for a while, not knowing why Yoshida-san even bother to buy him one and instructed him to have it with him all the time, but grateful for it. He flipped the phone open and pressed 110.
“I am calling to report a kidnapping case.”
xxx
Kato Takashi was not in a very good mood. The last three months of his life was hell, almost literally. Thanks to a certain school nurse who pestered him almost every day.
At first it was not that bad, really. At least he could always pull Ohuchi-san in front of him and left him to deal with the school nurse. But then, two months ago, Ohuchi-san was transferred to a different police jurisdiction and, alas, all those whinings and pesterings were all his to endure.
He laid his head onto the table, staring off into space as he let his mind wondered again. Then, just like how moments like this ended, he found himself staring at a certain sketch book that lying at the side of his desk, buried among the messy documents, given by Ohuchi along with a simple request to find its owner.
A sigh escaped his lips before he pulled the sketch book from under the pile. He adjusted his sitting and flipped the book open.
He had seen the drawings hundreds of time, but yet he was never ceased to be amazed at how realistic these pencil drawn pictures looked. That boy really did have a talent. It was too bad that he was caught up in thi-
A sound of telephone ringing reached his ears, abruptly ended his line of thought. His head jerked upwards and he looked around, only to see that he was the only one in the room who wasn’t doing any work and that some of his colleagues were now looking at him with a clear message.
Seriously?
He sighed and stood up, placing the sketch book on his table before walking to the ringing telephone.
“Tokyo Police Station.”
“I am calling to report a kidnapping case.”
His breath hitched at the familiar voice that he last heard three months ago. He quickly grabbed a pen that was on the table and struggled to open his notepad.
“Okay, can I have the location, who the victim is and the time of the incident?”
“We are now at the front of Seifu park. The… uhm…”
There was a muted sound of the caller asking someone a question and he waited anxiously.
“The victim’s name is Hirai Igumi, one year old. The time is… around five minutes ago, so six-fifteen.”
He wrote all the details, ripped the page off and waved it to his colleagues who were now watching him intently. One person approached him and took the paper from him, the others started to move along.
“We are now in our way to your location so please do not go anywhere until our officers arrive there.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Usually, this was where he put the phone back and hurried to catch up with the others and drive to the crime scene. But this time, there was something he needed to make sure first.
“Wait!”
He stopped the person from the other line from hanging up. His current partner poked his head into the room and motioned to him to go quickly. He nodded and gestured to the phone, which seemed to be enough as the other disappeared again behind the door.
“Yes?”
The voice answered confusedly and he took a deep breath as an image of a certain boy turning around to face him and Ohuchi-san with a confused expression flashed in his mind.
“Are you Tanaka Ainosuke-kun?”
He could hear that person’s breath hitched and all went silent.
Bingo.
“Ainosuke-kun, do you remember me?”
He was never felt more thankful than right now for the boy’s tendency to freeze when something unexpected happen as he had learned from the few times he had to deliver bad news to him. The others would have simply hanged up the phone were they in the boy’s shoes.
“Kato… san…?”
He could have laughed out loud if the situation was not so serious. Never had he been more thankful for the boy’s childish honestly either. Seriously, this boy… Had he not notice that answering his question would have erased any chance for him to deny the previous statement?
Not that he was going to complain. And not that he could help the soft smile that was now grazing his face.
“It’s been a while. How are you doing?”
More pause.
“You…”
He quirked an eyebrow at the hesitant voice.
“I’m what?”
“You are not going to ask where have I been?”
He sighed heavily and raised his hand to rub his temple tiredly.
“Honestly? I am very tempted. But at least now I know that you are fine. You are fine, aren’t you?”
Kato could just imagine Ainosuke smiling at his question. The small chuckle that he heard just confirmed his suspicion. Yes, he was sure now that the boy was fine.
“I am.”
“Good.” He hesitated, mind working over what to do, now that he had actually found Ainosuke. Well, not really found, but, the closest to it than he ever been for the past three months. “He really keeps his promise.”
“Promise?”
His brow furrowed when he heard the confusion once again laced the boy’s voice.
“Your… ‘kidnapper’ left the police a message that day when he took you.”
(flashback)
Kato anxiously marched around the police station. He swore he had never felt this worried ever since he got his first case as a police officer. The school nurse beside him didn’t make things easier either, kept muttering how she should have kept a better eye on her student.
“Sayama-sensei I would really appreciate it if you could please! Stop! Mumbling!”
The school nurse turned to him sharply and he almost backed away at the fury he saw in her eyes.
“How can you expect me to be silent? My student was out there! Alone! And I have no idea how he is doing! He could be lying out there somewhere dying for all I know!”
To his horror tears started to stream down her cheeks. Still, she spoke to him with fire in her eyes.
“And you know what worse, Kato-san? You asked me to keep quiet! It was the same as if you told me not to worry! Don’t you know that there would be no one in this world that would be worried for him if I stop?!”
He felt his anger vanished into thin air at the reminder that Ainosuke had lost every single member of his family and was now left on his own.
“Not true.”
He watched as the nurse looked at him questioningly.
“He still got me and Ohuchi-san besides you.”
Sayama offered him a shaky smile and he returned the gesture, offering and receiving any sort of comfort he could. He was about to say something when someone else beat him to it.
“Kato-san!”
He turned to see one of his colleagues ran to him at full speed before stopping abruptly in front of him.
“You have to see this!”
He shared a look with the school nurse before turning and ran after his colleague. He was led to the investigation room where they kept the laptops and for a moment his eyes wandered around, until he found the writing on the whiteboard and his eyes widened at the sight. There, written in black on white, was a message from the terrorist.
‘This boy will be in my care for a while. Do not worry, for I will not harm him. I will return him to you when I see fit.’
“What does this mean, Kato-san?”
He looked at his side where Sayama was currently staring at the message in open horror. He gulped and answered shakily, his own eyes were filled with anxiety.
“This means… that Ainosuke-kun is currently being held captive by the terrorist. And we have absolutely no lead to who and where this terrorist is.”
(end of flashback)
Both he and Ainosuke were silent when he finished his tale. Then, to his horror, a sob-like sound was heard from the other side of the phone.
“Ainosuke-kun? Hey, Ainosuke-kun, are you alri-”
His sentence was cut abruptly when the phone connection broke. He stood there dumbly, staring absently at the phone he was clutching in his left hand.
Had he said something wrong? Something that offended him, maybe?
No, he was sure he had not. On the contrary, hadn’t he just confessed that he actually cared about the boy?
Letting out a deep frustrated sigh, he put the phone down and ran out of the room, determined to get to the crime scene as soon as he could and get things straight with a certain 15 year old boy.
xxx
“I see you are here again, Yoshida.”
Yumeto shifted his attention to the source of the interruption who had came uninvited into his office. He raised an eyebrow at her haughty expression.
“Any particular reason as to why you decided to grace us with your presence this morning, Noriko?”
The said woman smiled mysteriously, ignoring the sarcasm dripping from her leader’s voice and seated herself in the unoccupied chair next to the ex-bomber. She casually reached for one of the documents on Yumeto’s desk and started to flip through it.
“I just want to report that your instruction has been carried out. We got the baby.”
His eyebrow went even higher.
“And you deemed it important enough for you to tell me that face to face?”
The gunslinger threw the document back to the desk and leaned back to her chair.
“Maybe not. But those people in the team came back to me with a very interesting report.”
“Interesting report?”
She nodded, smiling slightly, and Yumeto couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to make her in such a good mood. His eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion.
“He said that when they were wheeling the baby into the car, there was a boy walking nearby.”
A sense of dread filled Yumeto’s heart as the word boy reached his ears. It couldn’t be.
“They said it was a boy around fifteen with a rather long dark brown hair and eyes. He was thin and a little short. Ah! And one of them added that he was cute.”
Yumeto’s heart was beating so hard that he almost could hear it thumping in his chest. Still, he forced his face to look bored and impassive.
“And? I still don’t see how this is so important.”
Noriko frowned at the crime planner’s indifference about this matter and Yumeto was more than glad to see this. Anything to get her attention off his brother.
She was about to answer him when Yoshida spoke.
“Well, I guess this is time for me to leave. You can continue your discussion. I’ll just go back to my apartment. Noriko-san. Yumeto-san.”
Yumeto looked at the older man and saw him giving him a significant look. To him, the message was clear.
I’ll check on your brother.
Yumeto nodded mutely, gratitude shining in his eyes. He knew that the older got his message as he smiled a little and, with a nod of head, stepped out of the room.
“That boy is your little brother, isn’t he?”
He slowly turned his attention back to the frowning woman in front of him.
“I told you we should have killed him that day. Now he’s out there somewhere, free to shout to anyone about your identity.”
“There is no evidence that it was indeed him. Many boys could fit in to that description. And I told you I know what I’m doing. Him being alive is a crucial point to my plan and for that, I can’t afford to get him killed. You just have to take my word for it. This discussion is over.”
Yumeto sighed in relief mentally when he saw that she relented, although unhappy. He then pulled his stance to be what is expected from a genius crime planner: bored expression on his face, a small smirk playing on his lips, eyes shining with confidence.
“Speaking of my plan, how is your meeting with that woman going?”