The sounds coming from Jiro's piano filled the quiet manor. He sat playing Moonlight Sonata with Madame Aiko watching close by him, sitting in her rocking chair by the window as she usually did. "You've mastered this song so quickly, Jiro, it's incredible." Jiro smiled at her, saying, "It's a good song, so it was easy to learn." She asked him then about Bastian, and he told her about the Police that had come to the Manor. "Did anything odd happen before he went missing?" She asked. Jiro stopped playing for a moment but then said, "I had a very busy day at a friend's house, I'm not quite sure what he got up to while I was away." She nodded saying, "A friend?" he shook his head at her and said, "More like an acquaintance." Her smile softly fades. "Oh, I see." He continued playing and said, "I don't really like other people." She frowned and looked at his hands as he played. She thought to herself how it was so strange that he could simultaneously speak and play the way he had adapted to now. "Thats why I won't be playing at the music hall anymore. I've changed my mind." She became internally upset, but stayed mature with her student, saying, "That's your choice, Jiro, no one can force you to do anything you don't want to." "She's right," said the female voice in his head. "Oh no," he thought to himself. "It's back again." He abruptly stopped playing, and the keys made a loud, confused crash as he retracted his hands back to himself. This caused Madame Aiko to gasp and said asked, "Is everything alright?" The voice in his head spoke to him again. Look at the girl. He turned his head to look at Madame Aiko right in the eyes. She was visibly confused and said, "Jiro?" Now ask her if she really loves you. Jiro shook his head no and covered his ears with his red gloved hands, he hunched himself forward and hid his face away from Madame Aiko. She held out a hand and touched his shoulder, but then he threw his arm backward, knocking her backward, causing her to fall out of her chair and onto the floor. "Shut up!" He yelled out, he pressed his hands tightly against his skull. Madame Aiko watched his outburst from the floor. He stood up, almost knocking the piano bench over behind him. He tried to walk away, but ended up falling to his knees next to the bench. Madame Aiko stood up and quickly tried to console him on the ground, but then, his arm swung back again as she approached. It sent her across the room, and right through the giant bay window that was behind the piano. She fell three stories to her death, and her neck had broken on impact. Later that night, Jiro was coming up the steps to the front door of the manor, and he had a large key ring in his hand with many different-sized keys. Inside the home, he closed the door and walked over to the front door side table, and opened a drawer, tossing the key ring inside. He slammed it closed. Well done, Jiro. 2 Lucas was resting in a hospital bed when suddenly, a light turned on. His eyes opened and in front of him stood Ms. Sakura Oba. "How are you feeling?" He replied that he was fine, but then went on to say that the police had searched him and taken important papers that he had recovered from the building before it burned down. She let him finish before she nodded yes and smiled faintly at him, saying, "Yes, I know." She went on to explain that she had received the evidence and congratulated him on the find. "Don't thank me, wait-" he looked at her with concern, "How did Sonia turn out? Is she okay?" Sakura smiled at him and softly said, "She's fine. She underwent another surgery yesterday, and is still resting." He tried to get up, saying, "let's go-" she stopped him. "Sit down, Mr. Sato." He leaned back and relaxed, realizing she was right. "Alright then, so what did you find?" He asked her. "The folder your grabbed has nothing to do with the victim, but it does have something to do with the building itself." Lucas listened as she went on. "BIOTECHNICA MEDICAL got shut down two and a half years ago, due to illegal usage of stem cells." Lucas looked perplexed. "We found a room in there-" he began, but Sakura cut him off, "Yes, we know about it all from Sonia." She stood up and he said, "Is there anything else?" "For now, no." 3 A crowd of people was pushing through the doors of the music hall. The stage had a single grand piano, and off to the side stage, Jiro stood, wearing fine clothing with his red gloves on, with a matching red bow tie. The room became silent and the lights dimmed, and as he walked out the crowd clapped and cheered him on. He took a seat at the piano and played. The crowd started weeping right away, they had never heard such wonderful playing before. They threw roses onto the stage and cheered him on while they wept and he played with pride. He finished his song and stood up, looking out into the crowd. He saw Madame Aiko, sitting near the middle, and a spotlight shone on her. She stood up and mouthed the words to him, "I love you," and he blushed as more roses hit his feet. He heard the piano keys sounding off and he looked down next to him to see that they were moving now on their own, and he looked back out into the crowd. The crowd laughed at him and pointed fingers, and began to throw eggs instead of roses. The light of the stage became brighter, and it was hard to see as he looked out into the crowd to find Madame Aiko, but where she had once stood, now stood a clown wearing a yellow clown suit with red polka dots. He was laughing loud and tilting his head back as he looked on at Jiro, exposing sharp teeth under purple-colored lips. He threw an egg from a wooden basket in his right hand. He then recognized who the crowd was, he saw the faces of the boys from Lord Desmond's fox hunting party, the ones who stared at him as he cowered in the corner, ashamed of himself. He looked down now, to see his fine clothes were gone, and his entire metallic body was exposed. Then, there she was. Madame Aiko, at the front of the crowd. She reached her hands out to him as she was pushed forcefully around by the people in the crowd, and then as she kept her eye contact with him her neck broke and her head flopped sideways and she fell to the floor and was trampled. Tomatoes started to hit the stage. He even saw Lord Desmond himself throw another at him. Then Lord Desmonds face changed, and a fire suddenly consumed him and he yelled in horror, throwing his hands up into the air. The others hardly took any notice as he also was trampled under their feet. The clown from before had now made its way through the crowd and was almost front and center stage when Jiro saw him. It held up a handful of dead and dried roses and threw it at Jiro. They hit his feet and the clown laughed and pointed at him, saying, "What kind of human doesn't drink water?" The stage itself caught fire, and Jiro stood there holding his arms out asking the fire to take him to hell. But why give up so easily, Jiro? Asked the voice of the girl in his head. He held his position and looked at the flames around him. "I've been this way for so long. It isn't fair that others don't suffer the way I do." Oh, but they can. Jiro became angry and lashed out at the voice. "What do you know!?" He said arrogantly. I can turn them off, Jiro. I can make the suffering stop. The fire and the crowd disappeared, leaving empty seats. Jiro paused in amazement. "What are you?" 4 "It's using AI technology," spoke Mr. Oba to everyone in the room while he stood at the front of his desk, controlling the projector. He clicked the remote. "I had them examine everything recovered at headquarters and this is what they sent back." Lucas was sitting at his regular spot on the couch next to Sonia, who was staring out the window. He asked, "AI Technology?" Sakura answered him. "Yes, Mr. Sato. It's actually standard today to pair AI with bionic prosthetics. However-" she paused a moment and Sonia looked at her curiously as she said, "Here, the technology is working directly with stem cells, which is virtually unheard of and illegal practice." Lucas repeated under his breath, "Stem cells?" Mr. Oba regained attention, "We had to go into old court documents to find out what exactly happened here. Still, many questions were left unasked, leading us to believe the judge may have been bribed." "And?" Asked Sonia suddenly. Mr. Oba gave her a serious look and said, "Experiments were done there with absolutely no legal monitoring, there's no telling what was going on, exactly." Sonia's mind flashed back to the room where she and Lucas discovered the blood-stained hospital bed. She shivered and tried to hide it. "There's no real way of knowing. We have what we have now and we've got to go with it," Sakura remarked. Mr. Oba clicked the remote, and the screen changed. "These are Sonia's MRI scans." They all looked at the screen intently as he read the notes aloud at the side. "The wound seems to be something cylinder that was initially jammed through the flesh, pushing its way entire through the shoulder." He stopped and clicked to the next screen. "There is evidence showing that the object may have indeed yanked itself right back through the wound, causing heavier damage going back through the way it came." Sonia shivered again. "That's right," she spoke up, "I felt something pull my shoulder backward. I was confused when the pain started." The screen was turned off and Mr. Oba made his way to sit down. "I think it's been long enough that you two should get back out there." Sonia kept her stare out the window and Lucas was surprised and looked at her for a reaction. She simply replied, without looking away from the window, "Where." Mr. Oba closed his hands together on the desk and looked down, saying, "Well, now we have his home address. I figure that's the best place to look." She raised an eyebrow. "Any idea if the kid still lives there?" Sakura replied to hey saying that they weren't sure of the child's whereabouts. Sonia then stretched out her arms into the air and stood up. "Come on, big guy." 5 Sonia and Lucas walked down the busy street with businessmen and teenagers crowding the sidewalk around them. "How old would this kid be, anyway?" she asked Lucas, adding, "In the picture at the lab, he looked like a little boy. Not to mention he's in a wheelchair." Lucas put on a pair of sunglasses as he winced at the sun gleaming off the windows of the tall, reflective buildings lining the streets. "Who knows? I'm more concerned to see who he lives with." Sonia lit up a cigarette in the crowd and bumped into a man as she did. She made a face of annoyance. "Those rich folks usually have someone lookin' after their kid for them." They made their way across the street to the tall parking garage building. Most people who worked on this block used public parking. They got into the elevator and Sonia jokingly pretended to punch the seventh-floor button in slow motion and Lucas laughed. The lights of each level flashed by through a little glass window as they went up. Lucas tapped his foot and Sonia asked, "So, big guy, what do you do for fun?" Lucas put his hand to his chin and pondered on an answer. "Nothing interesting," he ended up saying. "Yeah, right," said Sonia sarcastically. "I bet you're a painter, like Picasso." He laughed. "Something like that." She sneered at him. "Come on, man." He shook his head. "You'll just have to keep guessing." She crossed her arms and leaned to the side a bit, saying, "Hm." The elevator door opened, and they walked out, heading towards her black car. The parking garage had nice warm sunlight shining over the open concrete edges. You could look out the side and see the city below. The shadows were strong. Towards the middle of the garage, there were white fluorescent lights above with black metal mesh on the outside, protecting them. The pavement itself was a light grey. Flies were already swarming around the lights above and Lucas took notice of the sounds the flies made as Sonia fished her keys out. They got in and they rolled down the windows and were off. 6 Sonia's car raced along the country road, heading up the hillsides towards the cliff area above the backend of the city. They were headed towards the alleged address of Lord Goro Kubo, supposedly he lived in a custom-built french styled Manor just outside the edge of town. Along the way, they passed many old japanese houses. Lucas had his arm on the window as Sonia sped down the road. "Bet you that's the place," said Lucas pointing toward a large white Manor peaking out from the trees on a far-off cliff. Sonia threw a cigarette out the window and said, "Bet it is." They slowed down when the way became a dirt road and the car wheels scrunched along. Sonia told Lucas to do up his window, but then they saw it, behind a tall black pointed metal fence. It had a gate at the front, but the vintage metal latch could be easily lifted by the driver getting out of the vehicle. Sonia stopped the car and got out to lift the latch, and as she did, she noticed the beautiful garden up ahead of her. She couldn't see the entire thing, as the driveway went up around the left side of the manor to turn toward the front door. She got back in and drove slowly up the driveway and then they could both see the garden and the water fountain. They saw that the garden also overlooked the cliff, and you could see the city below off in the distance. Jiro sat by the fountain. He was sitting on a white bench, he was kneeling down, feeding a bird from his hand. Sonia and Lucas couldn't tell what he was doing at first and he hadn't realized anyone else was there. He looked down at the innocent bird, eating from his completely still hand. He said, "I hope winter never comes." He was entranced with the bird and watched it closely still as they approached him. Sonia's feet came into his field of vision and his pupils shrank and focused instantly on them. His head jerked towards them and he then saw her and Lucas standing over him. He looked at them angrily. "Who are you people?" He seemed annoyed. Sonia kneeled down and said, "I'm sorry if this is a bad time." She spoke in a way Lucas hadn't heard from her before, she sounded almost motherly towards the boy. She held out a hand to him. "Let me help you," she offered. His eyes softened. He held up a hand and denied the help, but instead apologized. "I'm sorry," he said as he stood. "How can I help you?" Lucas stepped forward and show him his badge, saying, "We work for the police, we're detectives." Jiro became excited. His eyes lit up and he asked, "So you've found Bastian?" Lucas was confused. He frowned saying, "No, I'm afraid I'm not sure what you're referring to." He was unsure of what to say next, but Sonia picked up the conversation. "We're here about your father's death." Jiro became confused. "You're Lord Jiro Kuba, correct? Son of Goro Kuba?" He nodded. "I'm detective Sonia Kiyama, and this is Detective Lucas Sato. We have new information regarding your father's case that you may want to hear. May we go inside?" "It's been over a year already, how could you have more information now?" Jiro was puzzled. She nodded and said, "I know this is unexpected, but I can explain it all in a more private setting." Jiro looked around. "This is as private as it gets." He held out a hand to the empty seats on the bench next to him and he said, "By all means." They sat with him and Jiro handed Sonia a bag of breadcrumbs, which she immediately passed down to Lucas, who impulsively took it and began to feed the few robins at their feet. 7 "Did your father have any enemies, Jiro?" He smiles at Sonia, saying, "No, he was loved by all who knew him." He then added, "As far as I know." She put an arm up on the back of the bench behind Jiro's shoulders and asked, "Did you see him often?" He looked at her and paused. "Sometimes." He flicked a crumb out of one hand and onto the ground playfully. A bird came to pick it up. "My father liked to go to those fancy parties with the rich people. I was never a fan of such things." Jiro flicked out another crumb. "Who are they?" Asked Sonia casually. "Wealthy people." Sonia nodded, realizing she may have hit a soft spot. "I see. Why didn't you go?" He fumbled with the bag of crumbs and gave her a sullen glare. "They aren't like me." She raised and eyebrow and asked him why that is, but all he could say was, "You don't understand." He then turned and made direct eye contact with Sonia and she watched his pupils shrink as they fixated on her. Lucas leaned forward and he broke the stare. "Bastian, who is he?" "My butler. Or- he was. He left recently." Lucas nodded. Sonia's eyes darted towards Jiro as she kept still, facing forward. She winced at him while she asked, "Who else lives here with you?" Jiro smiled softly and said, "Just me and the birds." He flicked another crumb onto the ground. They all watched the crumb fall and Lucas threw down some more crumbs after. They sat for a moment in silence and watched the robins peck at the bread. "This is a lovely place you have here," admired Lucas. Jiro smiled and flicked out another crumb. This time, when the crumb landed, a crow appeared and ate it. It began to eat peacefully with the small robins and it cawed. When it did, Sonia looked carelessly back to Jiro, but now she could see his expression of hatred. He gritted his teeth and she heard them clench together. His eyes were sharp, and the brows caved at the center. Jiro stood up with a fist in front of him and yelled, "No! Go away!" He grabbed behind the white bench and brought out a broomstick handle. He whipped the handle back and forth, trying to shoo the crow away. It worked, but all the birds flew away. "What was that all about?" asked Lucas, under his breath, thoughtlessly. Jiro had become annoyed with him. He turned, saying strongly to him to "Mind his own business." He looked back at the crumbs on the ground somberly and Sonia stood up from the bench. "Maybe we've overstayed our welcome." Jiro felt bad and turned to apologize. "I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well today." She asked if perhaps they could come back in a few days and he agreed, but then added, "That would be best, as I have my piano lesson with Madame Aiko today." Lucas asked, "Madame Aiko?" And Jiro shot him an irritated look. "What of it?" he replied to Lucas, speaking lower with a slight hiss in his voice. Sonia apologized once more before she and Lucas left. What they didn't know, is that as they left, Jiro kept his eyes fixated on them the entire way. That night, Sonia sat up alone in her bed against the basic wooden frame, covered with a white sheet. A small lamp was on the night table next to her and she sat staring directly out the open window that was across from her bed in the mostly dark room. Her apartment view was high up, and she could even see the lake. Above the water was a large suspension bridge, and tiny lights moved across it. There were wires outside as well. They lined the streets below like hanging vines. She heard the cars racing by below. The air felt cool, a comfortable summer night. Billboards lit up in the distance and the stars were out. She got up, sliding the sheet off her. Standing next to her bed, she yawned and stretched out, rising on her toes as she did. She coughed for a second and then made her way across the room, grabbing a rocking chair and pulling it over to the window, where she sat down. She leaned forward to grab something but felt a shock of pain in her shoulder. She cried out slightly and grabbed it, leaning back again. She looked forward and grabbed a box of cigarettes on a small stool next to the window with her other hand. She lit up a cigarette and glanced at the clock. "I wonder what lover boy is doing right about now." 8 Lucas lay in his bed asleep with the lights out. A noise is heard down the hallway, but Lucas isn't awake to notice. Footsteps sneak closely to the door, they're soft and light. The doorknob slowly turns, and the person takes their time in keeping quiet. A silhouette slips through the door and into the room. It walks slowly around the bed, but now across the carpeted floor that helped to mute their steps. They stopped on the other side of the bed and stared down at Lucas as he slept. The covers start to pull away from him, and he woke. He turned on his bedside lamp. "What are you doing?" Ms. Sakura stood on the other side of the bed, looking down at him, embarrassed. "I had to use to the washroom, so I got up and left. But when I came back, I realized that getting back into bed was a lot harder than getting out." He laughed and scratched his head. She lifted up the blanket and slipped back underneath it as she lay down. "I'm sorry I woke you." Lucas sighed and said, "It's okay, I was having a nightmare, anyway." He turned on his side and looked at her. She blushed and asked, "What?" He smiled and caressed her cheek. The room was covered in abstract paintings, done by Lucas. Eventually, after he had turned off the light, Sakura had drifted off to sleep again. Lucas lay awake, thinking. "This job is cruel for a girl like her," he thought. She was extremely intelligent, but Sakura was a very thin and frail girl. Even her blond hair was thin. Her job at the office was, as far as he understood it, a researcher of sorts. She wasn't entirely open with him on what exactly she did there. Apparently, she legally couldn't be. No one was allowed to know the details of her work, and she took it very seriously. To him, everything was perfect about her. He didn't love the idea that she was his boss's adopted daughter, but nothing can be perfect. She had told him that her father had never found true love, he never married. The next morning, Lucas woke up to see that Sakura was already gone, and that she had left a note on her pillow. "Early call, see you later," with a heart drawn next to it. He admired her dedication to her job, it was unlike anything he had seen before. He had heard many times about workaholic types, but it was different when you really knew one. He was soon ready for work and was making his way out to the bus stop when his phone beeped. He had a text message from Mr. Oba saying to get there as soon as possible. "Well, I'm already on my way," thought Lucas to himself as the bus arrived. After he sat down, he glanced around the bus and saw an older man sitting opposite to him a bit down the aisle. He was reading a newspaper, and Lucas read the front cover. "Suspicious death of a teenage girl on the outskirts of town raises questions of a possible homicide. Police give no answers." He shook his head. "Shame," he thought. At the office building, Lucas stood in line at the checkpoint of the lobby. He could see and hear Sonia chatting it up with one of the checkpoint security guards who she kept calling 'Dazz.' He laughed to himself and figured Sonia had a thing for the guy. He heard Dazz confiscate "Another" lighter from Sonia. He then heard him tell her that she knows she isn't supposed to bring lighters in and that he'll just have to bury it with the others. She laughed as he said this and he waved her goodbye as she left for the elevators. Sonia gets lighters confiscated at least once a week, and she tells everyone that it's just because she forgets they're in her pocket, but Lucas now smiled to himself and thought perhaps there was another reason. "Hey, buddy?" Said a man from behind him in line. Lucas turned and saw him pointing forward, and realized he had been zoning out as the line moved, creating a gap in front of him. He quickly moved forward, joking, "Early morning," as he did to the people around him. Finally, he was at the checkpoint. As he walked up to Dazz, he smiled as if to be holding back a grin and said, "Hey there, loverboy." Lucas blushed and asked him, "What are you talking about?" He thought to himself perhaps Sonia knew about Sakura and had told this friend of hers in confidence. Dazz laughed at Lucas's reaction and said, "Relax man, I'm just kidding. Sonia told me to give you that as a nice Monday morning hello. Lucas relaxed and looked at the ground, laughing and shaking his head. "Of course she did." The same man who had bothered Lucas earlier yelled out from the line behind the checkpoint, "Can we hurry this up a bit?" Upstairs, Sonia was alone, sitting in Mr. Oba's office in her usual spot. Sakura came in and offered her tea from the tray she had. She happily accepted, also as usual. Then as Sakura was placing the tray down, she accidentally knocked over the sugar with her hand. As mundane as this may sound, for Sakura, it was rather unusual. "Tired, Sakura?" asked Sonia. "-Yes," Sakura began, "I was up very late, and I had to come in early." Sonia grinned and put her hands behind her head, saying cooly, "Got yourself a man now, huh?" Sakura blushed and this made Sonia laugh so hard she had to put down her tea back down. She spilled some drops on the table and Sakura grabbed a napkin. This made Sonia laugh more. "Relax, Sakura, I'm just kidding around." Sonia took the napkins from her and cleaned up the mess and Sakura laughed about it with her for a while until Lucas entered the room. He said hello to them as usual, but Sakura in particular said hello back to him quite formally, and Sonia picked up on this immediately and raised an eyebrow. She looked one way at Sakura and one way at Lucas, who were both still standing up as if it wasn't awkward enough already. Eventually, they sat down, and it was pretty quiet up to the point that Mr. Oba finally arrived. Sonia couldn't help but think that he was the one who called them all in early and then he comes in last. Mr. Oba came into the room very abruptly and quickly made his way over to his desk. "Anyone here see the news yet?" He asked while scrambling through the desk drawers for the projector remote. They all remained silent, as they could tell Mr. Oba was in a bad mood. "No? Well, today there was a story about a girl who was murdered." Lucas remembered the newspaper he saw the man on the bus reading, and said, "Is it a homicide? I read that it was a suspicious death." Mr. Oba slammed a drawer shut, not being able to find the remote, he became frustrated. He sighed and replied to Lucas, "You bet it's suspicious." Mr. Oba rubbed his hands together and calmed himself down. Eventually, he held them on table folded, and he went on to explain. "Her brain was scrambled the same way that the victims were." He closed his eyes and lowered his head. "We now have to consider that we're dealing with a serial killer." They were all surprised. "This way bigger than we thought." "Goro Kubo's murder, the fire, and now this," Sakura shook her head. Sonia stood up and asked the captain, "So, where do we go from here?" Mr. Oba looked up at Sonia as she stood there and said, "Depends. How did it go with that kid?" Sonia crossed her arms and leaned to the side. Lucas answered for her, "He lives alone and he's got a temper." Sonia added, "He was in a bad mood the day we went over there, so he says. We offered to come back another day." Mr. Oba nodded, saying, "Today." Mr. Oba stood up, saying, "Now if you all don't mind, I have to go down to headquarters and explain all this to a group of old men who give me a lot more trouble than any of you do." They all smiled as he said this. He walked around the side of his desk and his foot hit the remote control for the projector. He picked it up. "Damn thing."