Fugitive: A Determined Cop

Akademi High, one of the most prestigious schools in Japan. Normally, the police were suppose to keep their noses out of what happens here, but when two of our own are killed along side students, they had no excuse to kick us out. I wasn’t there the day it happened, but my ex-partner was. Hiroshi got promoted to deputy just two weeks before the incident. Ain’t that some shit luck. The suspect, a young girl name Ayano Aishi, had tried to kill one of her classmates, Oka Ruto, with a ritual knife. Apparently Oka was the leader of the Occult Club and Ayano was helping her tidy up the room out of nowhere. That turned ugly real fast. If the teacher hadn’t been nearby at the time, the poor girl probably would have died. Instead, bad turned to worse. Ayano ran from the club room, stabbing three students who tried to stop her. Their wounds were fatal. The police were called, and as per usual since a student had gone missing a few week earlier, a squad was nearby in case anything went down. Hiro was the first to jump out of the car and chase after her. He was running too fast when she turned around and ran right into the knife. I always told him that he was too heroic for his own good. And now-
	“Onishi-san, are you sure you’re okay to be here? No one will think any less of you for taking some time off.” The chief said from behind me. I put my hand to my eye and it came away wet. Dammit, I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. I quickly wiped my eyes with my sleeve and turned away from my report. “I told you, I’m fine. I’ll mourn once this psycho is behind bars. And for the last time, it’s fine if you called me Kojiro.” I said with perhaps a bit too much annoyance than I had meant. The Chief sighed sadly. “Sorry, I won’t ask again. I just came here to drop off the transcribes of the interviews.” He handed me a manila folder. I thanked him and turned back to my desk, unwilling to talk more, mostly out of fear he would want to talk about Hiro. The folder was stiff, and I had to put a paper weight on each side just to keep it open. After a few minutes of reading, I discovered there wasn’t much information in here that was particularly helpful. Most descriptions of Ayano were simple. She was an unassuming girl who didn’t have many friends. She was seen wandering the school more than usual for the past four weeks. In fact, the day before the attack, the school’s resident delinquents saw her watching them and the furnace they hung out by. Further investigation found a mop and bucket hidden in the bushes nearby, along with a spare change of clothes.
	One of the more useful interviews was with a girl who was a sort of info broker at the school. She went by the nickname Info-chan. Obviously she spent too much time gathering gossip and not enough time thinking up a creative name. She told us that Ayano had an obsession with a student at school, Taro Yamada. Searching her apartment confirmed this. Investigators found a shrine dedicated to the boy, with strange objects such as half eaten apples and used toothbrushes. Further digging showed that the victim had a crush on this same boy and had planned on confessing her love for him the day after the attack occurred. It’s a safe bet to say jealousy was the motive here. I recommend informing the boy of the girl’s obsession with him and keeping at least one police officer watching his house at all times. Ayano’s parents were called and informed of their daughters crime. The mother sounded quite upset and unfortunately is out of town for a few more weeks on business. “Don’t know what business in more important than your own daughter.” I muttered to no one in particular. A curious head turned in my direction from a nearby desk. “Are you talking about the Aishi Case?” He asked. I swear I’ve seen him around the office before but I can never remember his name. “Yeah, why?” He turned towards me, excited to tell whatever tale he had in his head. “I wouldn’t trust what her mother says too much, she was a suspect in a murder years ago. We couldn’t convict her but everyone agreed that she did it.” “Like mother like daughter I suppose.” My watch beeped, telling me it was time to clock out for the day. I sent the preliminary report to the chief and got out of my chair. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” As I walked out of the room he called after me. “Try to get some sleep! You look awful!”
	“Jesus, he wasn’t kidding.” I said to myself as I saw my reflection in my bathroom mirror. My short black hair was a mess and I had bags under my brown eyes. The last few days had been kind of a blur. Between visiting the morgue, agonizing every little detail of the evidence, and nights spent with me hunched over a notepad, writing down any theory I could come up with, the only sleep I could remember was stressful and alert. Not exactly the best condition to feel rested. Hell, the last time I got a good night’s sleep was when Hiro took me to a bar the night before. I was sleeping off a hangover when it happened. Wonder if I could of saved him if I was there? I moved the notepad I was sitting over to the side so it wouldn’t get stained with tears. I can’t spend my time worrying about ifs and buts. I had bigger concerns. Without even realizing, I had walked over to the window. Somewhere out there, was a killer who needed to be caught. Someone with a twisted obsession and no morals to speak of. Someone who killed my best friend. And even if I die trying, I’m going to bring that bitch to justice.