Ride on Time

Chapter 122

Mitsuo felt lost though he knew there had been a purpose for him to prolong his stay in Malaysia. He didn't know what he was missing, no nightmares for the past few days, no intuitions like the movies he'd watched, and no clues.
His Bluetooth speaker played Seven Lives by Enigma as he laid flat on his bed with his arms and legs spread on the spacious king-sized bed. The song's lyrics suggested that he should follow his inner guide. But at the same time said that's it was so close yet still too far. Mitsuo thought that was accurate since the truth was indeed so close but too far away for him to grasp. It was all still a blur, what if Shri did die in an accident like all the articles has suggested?
Mitsuo sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes. He was getting nowhere in finding the answers he needed. The only progress he made after cancelling the flight was gather info about Shri's days from Sufyan. He sighed and thought about what he should do, he needed a plan and that was something he didn't have.
The young man scrambled towards the desk and opened his diary, flipping all the way to the back so that it won't interfere with his journaling. Mitsuo decided to go for vertical writing since it would be easier to continue to the next page if he needed to. He felt like he was writing a novel again, just like how he used to do back in high school. Even that detail reminded him of what Sufyan had said about Shri.
But before Mitsuo could scrape the surface of the paper with the nib of his fountain pen, he decided not to scribble the back of his journal. He had to organise his findings. He needed a blank book to write on.
Mitsuo ended up looking through his phone for the nearest stationery shop but found that they were all closed. Surely, there was some place open?
So he texted Shree and asked her instead. The girl immediately gave her a reply.
Do-It Shop can
Can get everything there
Wasn't that a hardware store? Mitsuo had passed the shop a couple of times, there was one in PJ State and another in Old Town. He caught a glimpse of another branch in the AmCorp Mall as well. The logo was literally a smiling screwdriver, how was he going to find a notebook there?
Mitsuo decided to just give it a shot since Shree obviously knew what she was talking about. He searched the place up on the Internet and found that it wasn't that far of a walk if he were to go through Jalan Barat, passing the Wisma Thrifty before cutting through to Jalan Sultan where the shop sat. Maybe he could get some of his favourite Dewey Blue Boba and some Tokyo Cheese Tarts since PJ State's branch of Secret Ingredient was in the same row. Now that was something he looked forward to.

Mitsuo walked into the Do-It Shop and stared in surprise. The first thing he saw wasn't a shelf of tools but a shelf of instant noodles. How on earth did that fit in a hardware shop?
He eventually stopped a sales assistant and asked him where he would find notebooks.
"It's upstairs," the young man said. "Just go up, it's all the way at the end."
Mitsuo bowed and started making his way towards the staircase, climbing up to the first floor. Still, no tools or hardware supplies, but rows and rows of reusable water bottles. As the salesman had said, he walked all the way to the end of the aisle and found what he was looking for.
A long row of nothing but notebooks of various sizes. Mitsuo decided to go for a thick medium-sized book of ruled pages. It was only around RM4 so the price wasn't bad too. The shelf behind him had ball-point and ink pens, all for cheap. Mitsuo couldn't help but take a six-pack of gel pens before making his way downstairs again.
From the foot of the stairs, he spotted a shelf of snacks beside the counter and made a beeline for that instead. He grabbed whatever he pleased before taking a better look around the shop.
The Do-It Shop even had an electronics section with everything from a computer mouse to a wireless earbuds. Mitsuo went further in and finally spotted the hardware section. That somehow made him satisfied, seeing how the name of the shop wasn't all a lie. He went back to the counter and paid for everything before making a beeline for Secret Ingredient for his Dewey Blue Boba and cheese tarts.

Mitsuo took the bus since he thought it would be hard to walk back to Sheralbon with his hands full. It was a good thing that the City Bus that he took stopped at Asia Jaya so it would be nearer for him. He noted that there were more than one route for the green bus.
There was still a lot left of his Dewey Blue Boba when he made it back to his room. He took the notebook out of the Do-It Shop plastic bag and set it down on the table so that he can start on his notes. He didn't wish to use up the fountain pen ink he brought and resorted to using one of the gel pens he got together with the notebook. It was compact too so he slipped a few into his bag.
And so, Mitsuo started writing down the discoveries and clues about Shri and his alleged murder. He wrote down about Shruti's claim too. Maybe this would lead to some clue, maybe in a nightmare or in a vision or something. Mitsuo was getting nowhere but there must be something, right? The same thing that kept him from skipping Setsubun and staying in Malaysia.
Mitsuo sighed when he finished with whatever he wrote, taking a sip of his bubble tea before leaning back against the comfortable rolling chair that the hotel provided. He closed his eyes and tried to picture the time of Shri's accident, connect it to all of the info he had gotten from Shruti, from the nightmare, and from the articles he had read online. Sufyan called him, right before Kumiko did to inform him about Misao, then he must've jumped straight into his car to go to KLIA without anything besides the clothes on his back. Then Shruti called him because she thought he was taking too long on his call with Sufyan, only to find that Shri was speeding down the Federal Highway towards KLIA. And then she got the rest of the family to follow along, then found the black Perdana flaming at the side of the road.
It was all so sad, now that he pictured everything in Shruti's point of view, knowing your close brother is in distress but not being there to help him. It was worse since she was on call with him the instant it happened.
Mitsuo took a deep breath and focussed back to the situation. According to the picture, and according to Sufyan, Shri met his demise near a building called Iron Can which was most likely abandoned at the time. He got up and made his way to the balcony. The building was still there, but now white instead of red. It was an automall now, not a tinning company anymore.
He leaned forward slightly and took a look at the other side of the road to see the Jalan Timur exit where there was a slight buildup of cars due to the traffic light. Mitsuo frowned as he imagined how the lorry had come in and went back inside. He mapped it out in the notebook, mentioning how the lorry had come in from the Taman Jaya exit then ran straight to Shri's Perdana that was driving towards Kuala Lumpur. How did such a large vehicle go unnoticed, he still didn't know.
Mitsuo decided that meeting up with Shruti was a step forward.