Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Operation Unsolved ❯ Case 1: Operation Unsolved 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Operation Unsolved
Author: Nekocin
Genres: Action, Mystery
Warnings: possible OoC on everyone's part, OC, [frozen writing style]
Rated: PG13 --> R
Additional notes: strange twist?, implied "pairings"
Disclaimer: I wrote a wish list to Santa about wanting a set of all the Prince of Tennis characters for Christmas. He wrote back, sending me a 300-page 'booklet' on copyright laws and infringement suits, said there was nothing he could do about it and asked if I would want a plastic kitty instead. I'm currently thinking it over... :burst into tears: =P

4.

It's been a long day.

There's rarely a day when he could rest his tired limbs, save for his days off. Costumers kept coming and coming. This job was pretty easy. All one had to do, was taking orders, clearing the tables, sweeping the tiled floor and washing the cups, glasses and the plates. And every day was the same.

However, not on this day, not on Sunday.

Shishido Ryou didn't like -this- situation one but. Most of the costumers looked suspicious; they kept looking around wildly as if they were going to be attacked any minute -they even wore almost identical black suits- He wouldn't be surprised if the suits were of the same trade-mark.

Was this day some sort of -showing respect to the death- day?

He grumbled something under his breath and kicked one of his fellow-workers, Akutagawa Jirou, awake.

"Get up! There's lots of stuff to do, Jirou!"

Jirou rubbed his eyes slowly, yawning a few times and stared with glazed eyes at Shishido.

"Mhm... Oh, Shishido... work? Ah, I should go back to work... don't worry... Can I take your ord-...zzzzz" And he fell back to sleep.

Shishido's eyes twitched. He felt irritated and stomped away from his sleeping friend. It's no use trying to get Jirou to help him, the guy's too sleepy at the moment.

Shishido took his place behind the cash register, sighed out to keep his temper in check and looked at the costumer coming straight his way. "Can I take your order, sir?"

"I like to have 3 cups of coffee with milk, 2 with cream, 1 glass of iced-tea lemon-"

"KYAAAAA~!"

The costumer's order was cut off, when a high-pitched scream startled everyone in the cafe shop.

Shishido looked over his shoulder, indifferently and looked back at his client. It's probably just the new waitress -what's her name?-, so easily freaked out at the sight of mice scurrying in the garbage can. Several of his fellow-workers went to the back of the kitchen to find out what's wrong. Perhaps it's okay to be certain about what exactly made said waitress scream so high-pitched -the pitch was so different-.

"Anything else, sir?"

His startled client blinked in bewilderment as if having forgotten his order.

"What was that?"

"What's going on?

"Is someone kidnapped?"

"We should call the police"

Several 'normal-looking' clients stood up from their seats and were curiously looking for a glimpse of anything unusual behind Shishido. The murmuring of curious costumer got out of hand that Shishido couldn't understand what the costumer in front of him was saying. He felt his eyes twitch again.

"Everyone, please go back to your seats!" The manager of the cafe shop was luckily around to shoo away unnecessary public crowding.

"There's nothing to worry about. One of our waitresses was just startled after seeing something... unpleasant" See? Nothing to worry about. Shishido noticed the worry lines on the manager's forehead, deepening.

"Enjoy your meal. Good day!"

Manager's troubled eyes met Shishido's...

"Karin!" The manager called out, never breaking the eye contact.

"Yes, sir?"

"Take over Shishido's place"

"Hai!!" A short waitress instantly appeared with a nervous smile on her pale face. She turned her attention to the bewildered costumer, whom Shishido had failed to complete his orders.

"Wha-?"

Before Shishido could say anything, the manager had grabbed him by his right elbow and pulled him along, to the back of the kitchen.

"What's going on, sir?"

"You have some medical experience, am I right?"

Shishido felt bewildered and furrowed his brows. "What? No, I'm just a medical student-" He pointed out, only to be cut off by manager's serious voice.

"What does it matter? Student or not, you know the basics anyways -- out of the way!"
Shishido's fellow-workers, who were circling something Shishido couldn't see, obeyed without protest.

That's when Shishido found himself staring at a corpse -a woman clad in a black-white uniform, perhaps a member of some hotel's cleaning staff. He blanched immediately, but didn't back away from what the manager was aactually asking him silently to do.

"Has anyone called the police yet? Or an ambulance?"

Shishido went on his knees and checked the woman's wrist -Very cold, she must have frozen to death...

"Yes, they're one their way"

"Can you please give me some space? The costumers outside need some reassurances! Go keep them low!"

Suddenly Shishido found himself ordering his fellow-workers as he checked the woman's closed eyes -the pupils were dilated, the color of her eyes was slightly faded...

"What's her condition?" The manager, who was hovering behind him, inquired nervously, not even noticing the irony in his question. Shishido observed the woman's pale throat -strangle marks...?

At last, Shishido let out a sigh and hung his head dejectedly. "... she's murdered..."

A collective gasps and sobs reached his ears. Nothing to worry about, my foot!, Shishido thought bitterly.

~XXX Operation Unsolved part 4 XXX~

"Hoi! 'nee-san, what happened to my newest addition of strawberry toothpaste? I can't find it"

"Isn't it on your washbasin?"

"Unyaa~, no, it's not there!"

"Oh, dear. I think your nephew must have taken it along to show his friends"

"Unyaa~, why~? It's my current favorite one! Why couldn't he take my second favorite one, the apricot one, nya~!"

"Eiji, maybe you should have told him not to show your collection of toothpaste to his friends. It's a bit too far"

"Hoi! Then what kind of uncle am I if I don't allow him to show off great toothpaste?"

"... Aa. Ah, Eiji, it's almost 8!"

"Hoi?... Unyaa~! I'm late! Tezuka is going to punish me! Unyaa~!"

9:35 AM

25 minutes later Kikumaru found himself running errands for his colleagues. He was just finished with the first task Tezuka had punished him for being late and made his way to a café shop to begin his second punishment. He didn't like buying several stuff in different -specific- stores. 

"Unya~! Tezuka, you're going to pay for this!" Kikumaru scowled as he read over the shopping list which Tezuka had given him. The list contained a series of certain accessories for his colleagues, along with the names of specific places of where to buy the said accessories.

He entered the cafe shop round the corner and took his place at an empty corner near the window. After putting the bag with the office supplies on the chair opposite of his, Kikumaru slumped over his table and started checking off mentally the orders he should make. 

"Can I take your order, sir?" 

The officer immediately straightened and gave the waitress a big smile. 

"Sure! But I'm warning you, it's going to be a long list!"

The waitress didn't seem impressed when Kikumaru noticed no change in the same blank, friendly look on her face. Oh well, it's not like the orders were his.

"2 liters of milk, 25 sandwiches, 10 with ham, cheese, cucumber and chili, 5 with mayonnaise, cheese, extra lettuces, chili, 9 with everything in them without chili pepper, and 1 without ham or chicken. Two cakes, a double chocolate one and a vanilla, butter-creamed one-,"Kikumaru rattled on, ticking his fingers off out of habit whenever he ordered. His grin widened when he noticed the waitress' panicked look on her face. She was trying to keep up with his pace of orders, writing the orders down frantically in her bloc note. 

At last, Kikumaru decided to save the poor waitress from more orders (blame Tezuka for the long list!). He graciously thanked the girl for her willingness to take his orders, and gave her the hundred percent effective smile no one seemed to resist. And hundred percent effective it was. The waitress left his table, blushing and giggling to herself.

Kikumaru turned his attention back on his table and somehow found himself staring at superintendent Oishi, who's sitting one table further from his. The superintendent's eyes were wide in surprise and spoke of amusement. He must have noticed him keeping the waitress longer at his smile than any usual costumer, to take the orders. The superintendent offered him a polite smile as a greeting.

The officer waved enthusiastically in response and grinned. 

A flash of doubt clouded the superintendent's face, but then he shook his head dismissively. He stood up from his seat, grabbed the folders, which he had been reading a moment ago, with one hand and his cup of hot tea with the other, and made his way towards Kikumaru's table. 

"May I sit here?"

"Hoi?" the officer blinked in surprise and hastily pulled the bag with the office supplies from the chair, silently offering the superintendent a seat. 

"Thank you," the superintendent smiled politely again. "You must be wondering why I'm sitting here,"

"Hoi! Any personal reasons?" Kikumaru grinned. 
The superintendent let out a small chuckle and leafed open one of the folders in his possession. 

"I'd like you to show Tezuka these reports on Herr Schwarzgerald's case. This one in particular might strike him as suspicious,"

"Hoi?"

"Remains of cyanide was found in his stomach and blood circulation. The autopsy confirmed that he's been poisoned around 9 or 10"

"Hoi!" An offhanded comment in a non-committal tone.

"The strange thing is, when the blood results come in," The superintendent said cryptically.

Kikumaru frowned, "Hoi? Blood on the wall? On the carpet? Or in the mirror?" 

"Neither of them are his, that's what I've found out this morning. The blood belonged to someone else, or rather to 3 other people," 

Kikumaru kept frowning. 

"What's so suspicious about that? All I can relate is that perhaps either one of the 3 people or all 3 had killed him. Unya~, but that doesn't seem right. Why spilling their own blood just when Herr Schwarzge-whatever his name is- was already poisoned an hour or two before. I'm assuming they've been present when Herr Schwarz-something felt the poison kicking in, unless there's another person in the picture, nya," he reasoned even if he were getting more confused. He's already having a headache. 

Wouldn't it be great to just stamp Herr Schwar- as a suicidal old man and close the case? But his conscience won't accept such a simple conclusion. Kikumaru looked up at the superintendent. 

"What do you think, nya?"

"I'm guessing that maybe the minister was being seized by people who wanted to rob him or something. By that time, I'm assuming the arsenic had been spread all over his body. When he was grabbed or something along those lines, he'd struggled, hurting all three in the process and leaving us plenty of evidence that perhaps the cook at the restaurant is the culprit," the superintendent smiled at Kikumaru's bewildered face.

"Hoi! That's pretty--plain, coming from you, sir," He pointed out, and then gasped in surprise, slapping his hand over his mouth immediately. 

"I apologize for being rude, sir," The apology came out muffled. 

"I try," Oishi grinned instead, referring to Kikumaru's comment. 

Oishi's eyes crinkled up so easily that Kikumaru swore he'd seen a dimple on the superintendent's face. He still couldn't see Oishi being Tezuka's best friend during high school. (He'd pried that information out of Tezuka with great difficulty of course or had it been the superintendent who volunteered this information?) Nice guy, Oishi, best friends with Tezuka, Kikumaru's manipulator. It didn't clicked- 

"Wa! What a surprise! You're here too!" Before Kikumaru could blink, the hand over his mouth was pulled away and sandwiched between two callused hands after that. ("Hoi?") He blinked at the person holding his hands and immediately, his eyes widened. 

"Unya~!" he let out an automatic, distressed shout.

"Yuushi, is that how you greet people?" the superintendent gave Oshitari a disapproving look and shook his head lightly. He received an evil grin in response from Oshitari. 

"No. Only cute officers like Kikumaru here. Aren't you just jealous?" the inspector leered at Kikumaru.

Kikumaru reddened as he squirmed under the evil grin. 
"Unya~ let go--let go--," Why does it seemed like the inspector was following him around?

"Yuushi-," the superintendent admonished and effortlessly saved the distressed officer from getting more embarrassed than he already was. 
"You're cutting his blood circulation," 

With that last one said, the inspector released the officer, grabbed the nearest chair and scooted closer to Kikumaru's. 
"Don't worry. The only time when your blood circulation is cut, is when I have you all to myself," Oshitari wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and widened his grin to intensify the effect he'd wanted, probably also wanting to hint that there's more meaning in his words.

Of course, the inspector could be--strange when he teased him with such affections but (dang it!) Kikumaru was getting scared already. Something cold ran down his spine and he shuddered.

Oishi took pity of the officer, so he cleared his throat to get Oshitari's attention. 

"Inspector, I think you have something you want to share,"

The inspector straightened and gestured to someone hovering near their table. A tall well-dressed (complete in navy blue suit with brown-striped tie) man stepped forward. The most unusual things about him were actually his bandaged forehead and the left arm, which was currently put in a sling. 

Very suspicious. Kikumaru and the superintendent shared a curious look together.

9:55 AM

Echizen was watching some red-brown-haired guy wearing a hideous blue cap, Shishido, being interrogated by one of the officers. The guy was currently explaining the state in which he'd found the corpse and clued the officer in that he had been the only one who'd touched the body.

That Shishido guy looked pale, probably from the shock of having found a murdered lady, and his slumped form made it possible for anyone to see how drained he felt.

'Ch', what a dramatic guy' were the first few words that popped out in his mind as soon as Echizen had laid eyes on Shishido. Even if the signs on Shishido's face were actually natural for someone who's never been exposed to a black-white scene before; the scene of life (white) and death (black). 

Raking his gingers through his hair frustratingly, Ryoma sighed out a low mumble. His oyaji had, yet again, made him go to this scene even when the Schwarzgerald's case was still open.

He straightened immediately as he watched the paramedics pass him with the body in a duffel bag in their possession. Neither one of the paramedics grazed him with a glance. They just walked past, doing their job.

"Hm, I feel this is getting very peculiar, won't you say so too Echizen?"

Echizen flicked his gaze from the paramedics to the photographer Fuji, who had been walking behind the paramedics holding his camera almost possessively. 

It couldn't have been a coincidence finding Fuji near the crime scene as a photographer, could it? 
Echizen didn't believe in coincidences so perhaps, he concluded thoughtfully, the other was stalking him because he was actually new on the job.

"Hmmm," was his response to the smiling Fuji. Neither positive nor negative. 
He stuffed his hands in his trench coat's pockets and turned his attention back to Shishido, the claimed medic-student. 

"I think this is pretty suspicious, ne Echizen. It's only been about 2 or 3 days after Herr Schwarzgerald's death,"

"So you've noticed,"

Fuji ignored his sarcastic comment and continued smiling, "And the hotel where Herr Schwarzgerald was staying is just one block away. After seeing her uniform and her identification pin, I'm sure she works there"

"Aa,"

Fuji paused and looked down at the shorter guy, still smiling. Such youthful determination and ignorance. Within a few seconds the itching of wanting to -do it- won his fingers over--Fuji instantly took a picture of the serious, absent-looking Echizen. 

"Eh?" Echizen blinked in surprise and shot a glare at Fuji's direction. Fuji only chuckled in satisfaction. 

"I thought you were supposed to take pictures of the crime scene,"

"I would like to add you to my--ah, how can I say this?--harem of photos," Fuji drawled amusedly in response and took another photo. However, this time the photo was of Echizen glowering. 

The look disappeared as it had appeared and in place came a perfectly blank look. "What about the drama queen? Anything interesting about him?"

"He's a medic student of Hyoutei University. Comes from a not-so-caring family. but overall he doesn't seem to have gotten into any trouble as of yet, since he's started working here part time. According to Inui, Shishido Ryou is actually great friends with the authorities,"

"With whom in particular?"

"He used to go to the same campus with Ohtori Choutarou and Hiyoshi Wakashi,"

9:55 AM

"Why have you brought Inspector Ohtori here? I'm very sure he's under great pressures," Oishi directed a concerned look at the said inspector's arm as soon as Oshitari had pulled a chair for the other.

Before Oshitari could explain, Ohtori had cut him off immediately. 
"Don't worry sir. I'm quite all right. I'm just here to confess something," he waved lightly at the superintendent, smiling politely as he adjusted the sling round his arm carefully.

Kikumaru looked blankly at the superintendent and then at inspector Ohtori. Something big was going to happen; he just felt it. And it had something to do with either the superintendent or the injured inspector. But what really bothered him was perhaps inspector Oshitari's serious look on his face, as if he was on the verge of exterminating a lawbreaker, when inspector Ohtori spoke up. 

"What Ohtori-san's trying to say, sir, is that he knows who had killed Herr Schwarzgerald," Oshitari elaborated--his face darkening.

Both Kikumaru and Oishi straightened in their seats immediately, and stared at Ohtori expectantly.

10:00 AM

Echizen frowned, "Wasn't this Ohtori present at Herr Schwarz's dinner meeting?"

"That's true," Fuji nodded at the same time and looked over at Shishido. 

Echizen followed his gaze, interested in how Shishido fit in the puzzle; the case of Herr Schwarzgerald's murder.

"He's not your natural suspect, but a suspect nonetheless," Fuji pointed out.

"Are the charges against Kaido-sempai cleared yet?" Echizen wondered out of the blue.

"Not yet. But they will be,"

"Who do you think is the killer?"

"Hmm. the same whom you've in mind, Echizen,"

Ryoma stared blankly at Fuji, trying to read off the other's veiled expression on his disinterested, smiling face. How fuji had found out who's the killer Ryoma would probably never know. But even so, there's no real guarantee that they had the same suspect in mind.

Ugh! The old man's going to pay! Why couldn't his father just end this case with evidence he'd whipped out from his ass--erhm--Never-Neverland, like he always did in his other cases? 

This work was so time-consuming and gave him throbbing headaches at the end of day too.

"Do you want to meet him?" Fuji spoke up suddenly and without waiting for a reply, he casually strolled down to Shishido. He didn't have to turn around to see if Echizen was following him. He just -knew- the other would follow him.

Next morning -- 10:00 AM -- Grand Meeting Room

A few hours ago the meeting room had been carefully arranged by nearby-stationed officers. The room consisted of one long rectangular desk (which was obviously for the ones who were heading the meeting), several smaller desks (for the people who were supposed to be present), a white board (which was put supposedly at the front of the room for viewing slides) and the projector (for displaying photo slides).

The door to the meeting room opened. Superintendent Oishi Shuuichirou entered gracefully. He was followed closely by both inspector Ohtori and inspector Oshitari. Behind the two, several other meeting attendants (including officers from different ranks) entered the room. Lastly, Echizen and Fuji followed inside before closing the door behind them.

Superintendent Oishi took his place behind the long rectangular desk, which was presumably made out of mahogany to show off the beautiful rich brown look, and waited patiently for everyone to take their places.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm glad everyone has made it here safely," Oishi began politely while raising his voice for everyone to hear. "Let us see the crime scene please,"

A slide was readied and someone flicked on the light of the projector to show the photo up large on the white board, behind the superintendent. It's a photo of the minister lying on the carpet, face down and dead. A few more slides of the crime scene were shown.

"As you all see, Herr Schwarzgerald had been killed 4 days ago. What can you all tell me?" 

Two by two, most of the investigators among the officers stood up to read their notes out loud.

"The autopsy had found substances of poison in his body. It's estimated that he got poisoned during his dinner meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We investigated the restaurant. Nothing seems to be amiss so far,"

"Herr Schwarzgerald arrived at home around 10 or 11. Some neighbours on his floor had passed the Minister in the hall and confirmed that Herr Schwarzgerald didn't look well. By that time, the poison had already been spread,"

"There are 4 people present at the dinner meeting including Minister Gakuto. The others are Herr Schneiders, Kaido Kaoru and inspector Ohtori-,"
Everyone peered curiously at the rigidly-sitting inspector, who had the privilege to sit beside the superintendent--still with his arm in a sling and a bandaged forehead.

"-Herr Schneiders is Herr Schwarzgerald's personal secretary whom he'd brought along to handle his paperwork. He's been working for the Minister for about 4 years now. Kaido Kaoru, a companion whom Minister Gakuto brought along, is Inui-san's apprentice. We'd narrowed down all 4 of them to 2. It's possible that inspector Ohtori and Kaido Kaoru had been in the crime scene before Herr Schwarzgerald blew his last breath,"

"We ran some blood tests. The results are that 3 different people had been around to witness the Minister's death. 2 of the samples confirmed Kaido Kaoru and Ohtori Choutarou's presences. The third one, however, belonged to someone--someone not from the authorities. It belonged to Aoyama Saori--the one whose body had been found dead near the cafe shop's alley,"

End Operation Unsolved 4

- oyaji -- 'father', Ryoma calls his father oyaji in an impolite way.
- Herr -- I forgot to mention that "Herr" is German and it's used in front of a man's name.

TheNekoTalks: 

1. I know that some of the medic studies require a lot of knowing stuff at heart. Knowing Shishido's favorite subject is History, which also requires a lot of knowing facts at heart, I thought he would probably make a good medical student -a medical student who needs a part-time job to pay for his school. 
2. The partnership between Tezuka and Kikumaru, is pretty interesting to explore, so it gets a bit wacky in the later chapters. XP It almost looks as if Tezuka's bullying poor Eiji. First with writing report and now, running several errands... :laughs: 
3. Oshitari strikes me as someone who's not really serious and likes to give everyone smiles (and the creeps if he wanted) to provoke them. Somehow he sound a bit like Niou... :frowns: 
4. The last scene--err--I couldn't think of a better name for that name :sweatdrops: And I like to add that 'two by two' comment. Officers (investigators) require to work in pairs, so they need to work together if they wanted to do their jobs right. That's what I've noticed.

Special thanks goes to Yoshikochan (because you're :hearts: very nice and because :hearts: your writing is actually better than mine so I hope you'll keep up!!) and the "Bayside Shakedown II" movie.

Thank you for reading!! Happy Late Holidays! Hope everyone had fun the last few days! and I'm sorry for the long notes :sweats:

:Smiley face: cin