Downtime 3

The police are still there conducting their investigation of the scene and take Chougou, Sun, Ichigo and Emiko aside for their statements. One by one they are each asked to tell exactly what they saw and who they suspect might be behind the bomb.

Chougou snaps out of his daydream about going to the field as the policeman forcefully changes the time of his voice for the third time to get his attention.

"I think that there might be a connection to this and a guy that we heard used to keep child slaves. We hear some real sick stuff from the people on the streets, you all probably see it even more than we hear about it.

We had heard about some guy named Nikaru that used to keep a small kid locked in a shop fixing electronics, but we never could find out enough to call you guys in. Apparently he got shot up in some bar anyway but he had an associate carry on with his business.

We never found out who they were or where they were doing this, but from what we heard from some of the street kids that we fed that they had escaped from some place where they were holding children and forcing them to do hard labor. We tried to trace it but the kids didn't want anything to do with our investigation and we wouldn't see them around anymore after that.

We possibly were getting too close so they decided to send us a message. That kid didn't deserve to be a part of this. I was on the streets just like them. We only wanted to help.I'll do anything I can to help you guys catch this sick bastard. People like them have to be stopped at any cost.

Sent from Topic'it App

I am Dr. Ichigo Takahashi and this is my account of what has transpired just a few moments ago. So I was upstairs taking stock of my inventory when I heard someone calling out from downstairs, so I ventured to see who was here, when I went downstairs I saw Ms. Amaterasu and Mr. Saito I introduced my self and one of my companions to them when a scared little boy comes in and asks for one of my other companions Chougou to give him a message, when Chougou came to see what message the little boy had for him, the little boy played the message on a recorder and then promptly had his head blown off his little shoulders and then I heard sirens and I ran outside waving my hands to gert your attention. and that is all I know about what happened.

Emiko complies with the officers taking her for a statement. She prepares herself to appear very sad about the event.

Making sure to keep eye contact with the men she says, "the boy, the poor young soul," Emiko looks down for a moment and then back to the men, "he walked into the office wearing an electronic collar around his neck. He was very nervous and asked for a man by the name, Chougou. Chougou was asked to come and meet the boy. Once Chougou entered the room, the boy held up a recorder and played a message that said something about a bad dog and consequences." Emiko turns away, sniffles, and wipes away a tear. She looks up again and continues, "it was then that his collar detonated."

Emiko pauses for a moment and then adds, "what sick, twisted person would do such a thing," and looks to the men for an answer.

The officer talking with Chougou says, "We'll be needing addresses of all those places you mentioned, including the electronics shop and this 'Nikaru's' assistant. You aren't under arrest, but you are a person of interest in this case so we would highly advise you not to leave town in the immediate future."


The one talking to Ichigo says, "What do you know of this boy? Have you ever met him before?"


A third one talking to Emiko says, "We know as much as you do about this. Why were you here to begin with? do you work here?"


The last one talking to Sun waits patiently for his statement.


As you are all talking, more police show up. Most of them are simply securing the crime scene for investigation but one appears to be a young human female CSI with 3 small drones flying behind her. Chougou recognizes the CSI. The last time they met he had been trying to hack into her drones and she was not overly appreciative of the fact. Luckily he wasn't identified at the time. Not that she'd recognize him now though...

Sun sits down with the police officer taking his statement.
"I just came back from visiting your colleagues at a korban near our center. I walked in and saw everyone with horrified looks on their faces, the little corpse and blood everywhere. It was such a mess! I went to get a mop and bucket to clean it up, but was told to wait til the police investigated it. My friend ran out to get your attention, so I went out to wait."

The officer says to Sun, "I see, and what was the nature of your business at the koban?"

"I went to ask for some information. Your colleagues there can surely fill you in on the further details."

To the officer, Emiko replies, "work at the center? No. However, I was here to introduce myself in hopes of finding work."

"No I don't recall seeing that boy before, I just I could have helped that poor kid"

The officer nods to Sun and says, "I will. I assume you left your name with them? What is your name by the way?"


Ichigo's officer says, "Do you have any idea who might have ill intentions towards anyone here that they would do something like this?"



Emiko's officer says, "You were here for work, you say? What kind of work, may I ask?"

Emiko says, "these men were on the news recently and I have training in public relations. I was here to talk to them about capitalizing on their new small fame. They may need my service after all; it seems not everyone is a big fan of them."

Sun, slightly embarrassed he forgot to introduce himself, says: "Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm Sun Dashou.Pleased to meet you. May I ask your name?"

Sun's officer says, "Officer Tanaka. Same as all these other guys. We're brothers. Except for the Tanaka in the building talking to the other guy. We've no relation to him. Anyway, I think that's about all the statement I need from you for now. We'll be keeping your commcode in case there is something else we need to ask you."

Emiko's officer says, "Seems so... Well, you are free to go. We will be keeping your commcode on hand in case there are any follow up questions. And, with your permission, I would like to keep your commcode myself, perhaps to arrange a dinner sometime less traumatic?"

"I have no clue to whom would do something like this"

Chougou gives them the address of the electronics shop that he was imprisoned in for his formative years, but says unfortunately he doesn't know who Nikaru's associate may be; he was completely guessing from the stories that he had heard that it was a continuation of the original business because of the similarities.

The only part that sounded similar is that the kids reported that they were all called dogs, and something about having to wear collars, which would be similar to what happened to this poor kid...

Chougou gets genuinely choked up thinking about it, his memory of his own abuse from the only person that would refer to him as a dog flashing in front of him and thinking how his refusal to participate prior had led to the death of this kid. "How many more would die before this is over?" he thinks to himself as he wipes away the tears, trying to not appear weak out of habit.

"Please let me know if I can help you all in any way. We are a community center just trying to do good in the world, but it seems like the bad has come to us."

Ichigo's officer says, "I see. Well, if you see or hear anything let us know. For now, just try to keep out of the way of the investigation. You never know what vital evidence could be trampled on and lost by carelessness."

Chougou's officer says, "Thank you for your statement. If we need to hear anything else from you, we'll let you know. For now, stick around town in case we need to contact you.... Actually, who do I need to talk to get full access to the security footage?"

"yes sir officer."

Emiko thinks to herself, "what part of being covered in blood and gore does this guy find attractive to where he asks me to dinner? Something tells me I don't want to find out."

She is already suspicious about the officers and how quickly they arrived on the scene and, careful to chose her words, she replies, "that is very kind of you officer. Right now I am not in a good state of mind to be considering dinners. Please do contact me if you have more questions about this horrific incident." She bows and walks towards the center.

Meanwhile Kitaro is lying on his bed, still staring at the ceiling.
He is tired but every time he closes his eyes the vision of the boy's exploding head returns.
Suddenly he remembers that Emiko gave him a business card with her commcode before it happened.

Kitaro searches for the commcode, takes a deep breath and sends her a message.

Hello miss Amaterasu, it's Kitaro. How are you doing? Are you still at the center? What was that awful mess? I've never seen anything like it in my life!

Emiko, remembering the man with the nice suit and fancy sports car that walked into the center with her, replies, "Kitaro, I am glad to hear you're ok and you were able to get out of there. I am doing well and heading back into the center now. This whole thing is crazy. I can't believe someone would kill a child to get their message across. I am also suspicious about the police response. They arrived rather quickly to the scene. Ichigo, another man I have not met, and myself were all questioned by the police but they let us go. If you are able to find out any information, or know people who can help, please let me know. I will let you know what I find out as well."

Emiko walks back into the center to talk Ichigo and the other man to find out what happened during their interrogation.

Chougou tells the police officer that he doesn't actually know how to get the old footage, he has only seen the live stream from a feed that their IT person set up for him. Chougou searches his memory for any of the alias m-mail or phone numbers that Sam might have shared with them ((I'm kind of assuming that they would do something like that, both being Matrix fiends...should I roll for it? )).

If he doesn't have one of those he will tell the cops that he has a business card for the guy in his room and will go and get it, contacting Sam on the way to ask how he wants to be involved.

Chougou thinks and realizes Sam hasn't given him any commcode other than his regular commcode.

The officer says to Chougou, "Well whoever is in charge of the cameras here, I'd like to speak with him about getting that footage. Bring me the number as soon as you can."

Kitaro lies back down on his bed and starts thinking.
He can see two paths of investigation: kids and explosives.
Unfortunately he knows very little about both of these subjects.

He decides that the only thing he can do for now is search for people that do have this sort of knowledge.